Terms of use

1. Who provides this

Terminoo is provided by Fadi Zgheib, Einzelunternehmen (Kleingewerbe), whose full details are in the imprint.

2. What Terminoo does

Terminoo reads an official German letter you photograph and explains, in a language you choose, what the letter says, what it asks of you, and by when.

It does three things and no more:

• It reads. Text recognition runs on your device.
• It explains. The letter's text is described in your language.
• It calculates. Where the letter states a decision date and an objection period, Terminoo works out the resulting date from statutory rules.

3. What Terminoo is not

Terminoo does not give legal advice, and nothing it produces is legal advice.

This is not a disclaimer bolted on for safety. It is a description of a boundary the software is built to respect, under the Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz (RDG):

• Explanations describe what a letter says. They do not recommend a course of action. The app will tell you "the letter states you may object within one month"; it will not tell you to object, and it will not tell you whether objecting is a good idea.
• Terminoo does not draft an objection, an appeal, a Widerspruch or any other reply.
• Terminoo does not assess your case, your prospects, or whether a decision against you is correct.
• Terminoo is not a tax advisor and gives no advice within the meaning of the Steuerberatungsgesetz (StBerG), even where the letter is from a Finanzamt.

If you need to know what to do, that is a question for a lawyer, a Steuerberater, or one of the free advice services — a Verbraucherzentrale, a Sozialverband, or the advice service attached to the authority that wrote to you.

4. Terminoo can be wrong, and you must check

The explanation is produced by a language model. It can be wrong, and the app says so on every letter.

• The paper letter is always the authoritative version. Where Terminoo and your letter disagree, your letter is right.
• Check dates and amounts against the letter before you act on them. Terminoo shows you where in the scan each figure came from, so that checking is one tap.
• Deadlines that Terminoo calculates are estimates. The calculation uses statutory periods and public holidays, but it cannot know about municipal holidays, an individual extension you were granted, or a letter that reached you late. A calculated deadline is always shown together with how it was reached, so you can judge it.
• Terminoo never moves money. Where a letter asks for a payment, Terminoo shows you the details and can hand them to your banking app. Your bank makes the transfer, and you authorise it.

5. Missing a deadline

Terminoo exists to help you notice deadlines. It cannot guarantee that you will.

We are liable under §§ 280 ff. BGB for damage caused by intent or gross negligence, and for injury to life, body or health, and under the Produkthaftungsgesetz where it applies. For simple negligence we are liable only where we breach an obligation whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of this agreement possible in the first place and on whose observance you may regularly rely — here: presenting a deadline and a payment instruction that match the letter you scanned — and then only for foreseeable damage typical of this kind of agreement.

This applies to our people as it applies to us. The same limits, and the same exceptions to them, cover our legal representatives, our employees and anyone we use to perform this agreement. That is said explicitly because the damage at issue here arises in the output of a system we operate, and a liability clause that left out the helper through whom the typical damage arises would not be regulating the main case at all.

What that means here, said plainly. The damage typical of this agreement, and foreseeable when you accept it, is a missed deadline — that is the whole reason Terminoo exists. So the limitation above does not exclude it. A limitation that carved out the one harm the product is for would not be worth the words it is written in, and would not survive § 307(2)(2) BGB either.

6. What you may and may not do

You may use Terminoo for your own correspondence, and for correspondence you are entitled to handle on someone else's behalf.

You may not use it to process letters you have no right to read, and you may not attempt to extract, resell or automate access to the explanation service.

7. Availability and cost

Every installation includes 3 letters. After those, 1 more is added each month, up to a maximum of 3 saved at a time. Scanning, deadlines, reminders and every letter you have already had explained are free and are not counted — only having a new letter explained is.

A reserve, so a balance can never cost you a deadline. If your allowance is used up, 2 further letters a year stay available. You do not have to buy anything to have an urgent letter explained.

Beyond that:

Payment is charged to your Apple Account or Google Play account at confirmation of purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel it in your app store account settings after purchase.

The purchase is a contract with the app store, not with us. We never see your name, your email address or your card.

Terminoo needs an internet connection to explain a letter. Scanning, reading and everything already explained work offline.

Prices are those shown by the app store at the time of purchase; the figures above are the intended prices and may differ with local tax or currency.

8. Ending it

There is no account, so there is nothing to close. Delete the app, or use Settings → Delete everything, and nothing of yours remains.

9. Governing law

German law applies. Where you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence.