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General Terms and Conditions

HackTalents — Terms of Use for Business Customers

Version 1.0 · Effective 7 August 2026

§ 1 Scope, Parties, Business Customers Only

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern the use of the HackTalents platform at hacktalents.ai (the "Platform"), operated by:

Hack-Nation UG (haftungsbeschränkt) Tal 44, 80331 München, Germany Commercial Register: Amtsgericht München, HRB 304261 VAT ID: DE456131673 Email: k-wiederhold@web.de · Phone: +49 1590 4193929

(the "Provider").

1.2 The Platform is offered exclusively to businesses (Unternehmer, § 14 BGB) — natural or legal persons acting in the exercise of their trade, business or profession. It is not offered to and may not be used by consumers (Verbraucher, § 13 BGB). By registering, the Customer confirms that it is acting in the exercise of its trade, business or profession.

1.3 These Terms apply to the exclusion of any conflicting or supplementary terms of the Customer. Terms of the Customer do not become part of the contract even if the Provider performs without objecting to them.

1.4 The contract is concluded when the Provider confirms the Customer's registration or first grants access to the Platform, whichever occurs first.

1.5 No exclusivity. The Customer is free at all times to use other recruitment channels, intermediaries (Vermittler) and service providers, for any role and for any candidate. Nothing in these Terms obliges the Customer to source candidates exclusively through the Platform, restricts the Customer from instructing another intermediary in respect of any role or any candidate, or restricts the Customer from engaging a candidate whose details it obtained independently of the Platform. §§ 6 and 7 confer no exclusivity in respect of any candidate and are without prejudice to this § 1.5.

§ 2 The Service

2.1 The Platform provides a searchable index of professional candidate profiles for use by businesses to hire. It offers:

  • semantic and filter-based search across the candidate index;

  • upload of job descriptions and comparable documents by the Customer, in order to search against them;

  • Profile Access — full candidate profiles in pseudonymised form, free of charge (§ 5);

  • Interest Check — the Provider asks the candidate whether they are interested in the Customer's role, in exchange for Credits, refunded where the answer is negative (§ 5a);

  • Introduction — the Provider brings the candidate and the Customer into contact, in exchange for Credits (§ 5b);

  • a prepaid Credit balance (§ 4).

2.2 By carrying out an Introduction the Provider gives the Customer notice of an opportunity to conclude a contract with an identified candidate (Nachweis der Gelegenheit zum Abschluss eines Vertrags, § 652 BGB). Beyond that, the Platform is a decision-support tool: it does not select candidates, does not make or recommend hiring decisions, and does not act for the Customer in relation to any candidate. Every decision to contact, interview, reject or hire a candidate is taken by the Customer alone.

2.3 The Provider may develop, modify and extend the Platform, and will give at least six (6) weeks' notice in text form before discontinuing or materially reducing a function the Customer uses, unless the change is required by law or to remedy a security risk. Where a function is discontinued or materially reduced, the Customer may terminate with effect from the date of the change and require payout of Credits under § 4.4, without the recalculation in § 4.4 sentence 3 applying.

2.4 The Platform is provided as a hosted service. The Provider does not owe the Customer any installation, on-premise deployment, source code or individual customisation.

§ 3 Registration, Account and Access

3.1 The Customer must register with accurate and complete information and keep that information current.

3.2 The Customer is responsible for the confidentiality of its access credentials and for all use of the Platform under its account. The Customer must notify the Provider without undue delay of any unauthorised use.

3.3 Access credentials are issued for named individual users. They may not be shared, resold, or used by more than one person.

3.4 The Provider may block access where there is a substantiated suspicion of a material breach of § 8, of unauthorised access, or of a security risk. The Provider will inform the Customer of the block and its reason without undue delay and will lift the block once the reason ceases to apply.

§ 4 Credits

4.1 Certain functions of the Platform, namely Interest Checks and Introductions, require Credits. Search and Profile Access are free of charge. Credits are purchased in advance at the prices displayed on the Platform at the time of purchase. The applicable price is shown before the order is placed and confirmed in the order summary.

4.2 Credits are prepaid entitlements to use Platform functions. They are not electronic money, not a financial instrument, not a security, and not transferable to third parties.

4.3 No expiry. Credits acquired for payment do not expire. The Customer's claim to redeem them is subject only to the statutory limitation periods (§§ 195, 199 BGB).

4.4 Payout. On termination of the contract the Provider will, at the Customer's request in text form, pay out Credits acquired for payment and not yet redeemed. No fee is charged for the payout. Where Credits were acquired at a volume discount, the amount paid out is reduced by the difference between the discounted price and the list price applicable to the quantity actually redeemed; this reduction is limited to the amount otherwise payable out and can never give rise to a payment obligation of the Customer. The Provider will state the calculation with the payout and will make it, where possible, to the payment method used for the original purchase.

4.5 Free Credits. Credits granted free of charge — in particular test, trial, bonus and promotional Credits — may be redeemed only within the period stated when they are granted. They are not payable out, not transferable, and confer no monetary claim. The Provider identifies free Credits as such in the Customer's balance.

4.6 Price changes. Price changes do not affect Credits already purchased.

§ 5 Profile Access

5.1 Candidate profiles are available to the Customer free of charge and in full, including professional experience, employer history, education, skills and seniority.

5.2 Profiles are displayed in pseudonymised form. The Provider does not disclose the candidate's name, email address, telephone number, LinkedIn profile or other contact details as part of Profile Access.

5.3 Profile Access allows the Customer to assess whether a candidate is suitable for a concrete vacancy at the Customer or at an affiliated undertaking within the meaning of §§ 15 ff. AktG. It confers no exclusivity, no reservation of the candidate, and no assurance that the candidate is available, responsive or interested.

5.4 Provenance and consent record. The Provider states, for each profile, the hackathon edition through which it was submitted, the date the candidate last confirmed their data, and confirmation that the candidate consented to their information being shared with companies. The Provider retains the underlying consent record and will produce it to the Customer on request where the Customer needs it to answer a data subject or a supervisory authority.

§ 5a Interest Check

5a.1 The Customer may redeem Credits to request an Interest Check. On an Interest Check the Provider contacts the candidate, informs them of the Customer and the role, and asks whether they are interested.

5a.2 The Provider reports the candidate's answer to the Customer. It does not disclose the candidate's identity or contact details as part of an Interest Check.

5a.3 An Interest Check requires a confirmed hiring brief for the role. The Provider may limit the number of Interest Checks a Customer may request per role or per period in order to protect candidates from excessive contact.

5a.4 Refund. Where the candidate answers that they are not interested, or does not respond within fourteen (14) days, the Provider re-credits the Credits redeemed for that Interest Check. The Customer has no further claim.

5a.5 The Provider does not warrant that a candidate will respond, and gives no assurance as to the content of any answer.

§ 5b Introduction

5b.1 Where an Interest Check has produced a positive answer, the Customer may redeem Credits to request an Introduction.

5b.2 Mediated introduction. On an Introduction the Provider brings the candidate and the Customer into contact with one another. The Provider does not supply the candidate's email address, telephone number or LinkedIn profile to the Customer as a data set. Communication is initiated through the Provider, after which the parties may continue directly.

5b.3 The Provider carries out an Introduction only where the candidate has agreed to it. Where the candidate withdraws their agreement or does not respond within fourteen (14) days, the Provider re-credits the Credits redeemed and the Customer has no further claim.

5b.4 The Customer becomes a controller. From the point at which the Customer learns the candidate's identity through an Introduction, the Customer receives personal data of the candidate and becomes an independent controller in respect of that data within the meaning of Art. 4(7) GDPR. The Provider and the Customer are not joint controllers. From that point the Customer is solely responsible for the lawfulness of its own processing, and in particular for:

(a) establishing and documenting its own legal basis; (b) meeting its information obligations towards the candidate; (c) responding to the candidate's requests under Arts. 15 to 22 GDPR in respect of the Customer's own processing; (d) restricting use of the data to the assessment of the candidate for a concrete vacancy; (e) erasing the data once that purpose ceases to apply, subject to statutory retention obligations.

5b.5 The Provider displays a notice of the Customer's controller status before each Introduction is completed.

5b.6 The Customer may not pass candidate data obtained through an Introduction to third parties without the Provider's prior consent in text form. Disclosure within the Customer's own group of affiliated undertakings for the purpose of the same vacancy is permitted.

5b.7 An Introduction confers no exclusivity, no reservation of the candidate, and no assurance that the candidate will engage with the Customer beyond the initial contact.

5b.8 Candidate objections. Where a candidate objects to processing, requests erasure, or otherwise exercises data subject rights with the Provider, the Provider will inform the Customer without undue delay where it is lawfully able to do so. The Customer shall then assess the request in respect of its own processing and respond to it on its own responsibility. The Provider may remove the profile from the index at any time in response to such a request; this does not give rise to any claim of the Customer and does not affect fees already earned.

§ 6 Placement Fee

6.0 Qualifying Events. A Qualifying Event is an Interest Check (§ 5a) or an Introduction (§ 5b) in respect of a candidate. A refund of Credits under § 5a.4 or § 5b.3 does not prevent the event from being a Qualifying Event. Where more than one Qualifying Event has occurred for the same candidate, the period in § 6.1 runs from the latest of them.

6.1 Trigger. The Customer owes the Provider a placement fee of 15% of the Annual Base Salary (§ 6.2) where, within nine (9) months of a Qualifying Event, the Customer or an undertaking affiliated with it within the meaning of §§ 15 ff. AktG concludes with that candidate an employment contract, service contract, contract for work or freelance engagement — irrespective of the role — and the Qualifying Event was at least a contributing cause of that engagement.

6.1a § 6.1 applies accordingly where the Customer or an affiliated undertaking engages the candidate as a temporary agency worker (Leiharbeitnehmer) under a contract with a third-party hirer (Verleiher). In that case the Annual Base Salary is the fixed gross salary agreed between the candidate and the Verleiher.

6.2 Annual Base Salary means the fixed gross annual salary agreed for the candidate's first twelve months.

It does not include variable remuneration of any kind (bonus, commission, profit share), annual special payments such as a thirteenth month, Christmas or holiday pay, allowances, a company car or its cash value, equity or other share-based compensation, signing or relocation payments, or employer social security contributions.

For an engagement of less than twelve months or on a part-time basis, it is the fixed gross salary actually agreed for that term or that part-time fraction, and is not extrapolated to a full year or to full-time. For a freelance or contractor engagement, it is the agreed fee for the first twelve months, excluding expenses and value added tax.

6.3 Causation. Where the engagement is concluded within six (6) months of the Qualifying Event, the parties agree that the Qualifying Event is deemed to have been at least a contributing cause unless the Customer sets out in text form circumstances from which the contrary follows. Where the engagement is concluded more than six months after the Qualifying Event, the Provider bears the burden of proving that the Qualifying Event was at least a contributing cause. This § 6.3 does not otherwise alter the statutory burden of proof.

6.4 Prior knowledge. Where the Customer relies on having already known the candidate and the candidate's concrete willingness to change roles before the Qualifying Event, it shall notify the Provider in text form, stating the circumstances, without undue delay after becoming aware of them and at the latest when the placement fee is claimed. Failure to notify does not preclude the Customer from relying on prior knowledge; it may be taken into account in the assessment of the evidence.

6.5 Reporting. The Customer shall notify the Provider in text form within fourteen (14) days of concluding an engagement covered by § 6.1, stating the candidate, the role, the Annual Base Salary and the start date. The Customer shall substantiate the stated figure on request by producing the relevant extract of the contract; the Customer may redact all content not required to verify the fixed gross annual salary.

6.5a Information right. The Provider may request the Customer in text form to confirm whether an engagement covered by § 6.1 has been concluded with a named candidate in respect of whom a Qualifying Event has occurred. The Customer shall respond in text form within fourteen (14) days, including where no engagement has been concluded. This is an independent claim to information; the Provider may pursue it separately from, or in the same proceedings as, any fee claim.

6.5b Consequences of failing to respond. Where the Customer culpably fails to respond within the period under § 6.5a and does not respond within a further ten (10) days after a reminder setting that deadline, the Customer owes a contractual penalty of EUR 2,500 per unanswered request, capped at EUR 10,000 per contract year. The penalty is credited against any claim for damages arising from the same failure (§ 340(2) BGB). Repeated failure to respond constitutes good cause for termination under § 15.3. Failure to respond does not give rise to any presumption that an engagement has been concluded, and does not alter the burden of proof under § 6.3.

6.5c Use of information. The Provider shall use information obtained under §§ 6.5 to 6.5b solely to determine and enforce its fee claim.

6.6 Applicable rate. The rate applicable is the rate in force when the Qualifying Event occurs. The Provider may change the rate for future Qualifying Events with at least six (6) weeks' notice in text form; a change does not affect Qualifying Events already performed.

6.7 Invoicing. The Provider invoices the placement fee once the engagement has been concluded. The invoice is payable within fourteen (14) days.

6.8 Replacement credit. If the engagement ends within six (6) months of its start date for reasons other than a restructuring, redundancy or change of requirements on the Customer's side, the Provider will credit 50% of the placement fee against the Customer's future fees, provided the Customer has paid the placement fee in full and notifies the Provider in text form within thirty (30) days of the engagement ending. This is a voluntary commercial concession and does not affect the fee having been earned.

6.9 Credits redeemed for a Qualifying Event are not set off against the placement fee.

§ 7 Passing On Profiles

7.1 The Customer may not pass candidate profiles or candidate data obtained through an Introduction on to third parties outside its group of affiliated undertakings without the Provider's prior consent in text form. This § 7.1 does not restrict the Customer from instructing another intermediary in respect of the same role, provided the Customer does not pass on the profile or that data.

7.2 Where the Customer culpably breaches § 7.1, the Customer owes the Provider liquidated damages of EUR 5,000 for each candidate whose profile or introduction data is passed on. The Customer is free to prove that no damage arose or that the actual damage is materially lower. The Provider is free to prove a higher actual damage; liquidated damages paid are set off against any such claim.

§ 8 Acceptable Use

8.1 The Customer shall not:

(a) use the Platform in breach of applicable law, in particular data protection law, the AGG and competition law; (b) contact candidates for any purpose other than a genuine recruitment enquiry — in particular not for advertising, sales or list-building; (c) resell or sub-license access to the Platform, or make the Platform available to third parties as a service; (d) extract, copy or reproduce the candidate index or substantial parts of it, whether by automated means or otherwise, or build a competing database from Platform data; (e) circumvent or attempt to circumvent technical access restrictions, rate limits or usage measurement; (f) use the Platform in connection with hiring practices that discriminate on a ground protected by § 1 AGG.

8.2 The Platform does not offer search or filter criteria based on characteristics protected under § 1 AGG. The Customer shall not attempt to construct such criteria from proxy attributes.

8.3 Indemnity. The Customer shall indemnify the Provider against third-party claims, including claims by candidates, that arise from the Customer's culpable breach of § 8.1 or § 8.2, and shall reimburse the Provider's reasonable costs of legal defence. The indemnity does not extend to fines, penalty payments or other sanctions imposed on the Provider, nor to the extent the Provider has contributed to the claim (§ 254 BGB). The Provider shall notify the Customer of any such claim without undue delay, shall give the Customer the opportunity to defend it, and shall not acknowledge or settle it without the Customer's consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld.

§ 9 Data Quality and Use of Artificial Intelligence

9.1 Source and generation of profile data. Candidate profiles are supplied by candidates themselves when they apply to a Hack-Nation Global AI Hackathon, and are included in the index only where the candidate has consented to their information being shared with companies. Profile content is normalised by automated processes, including large language models, and may be enriched from the candidate's own stated public profile. Profile data reflects what the candidate provided at the time and may be incomplete or out of date. The Provider warrants that a profile corresponds to the data the candidate submitted and last confirmed. The Provider gives no assurance as to a candidate's qualifications, availability or interest.

9.2 Lawful sourcing and consent. The Provider warrants that every profile in the index originates from the candidate, that the candidate has consented to their information being shared with companies, and that the Provider maintains records of that consent. Candidates who did not give that consent are not included in the index. Where a candidate brings a claim against the Customer that arises solely from the Provider's collection of the profile data and not from the Customer's own processing, the Provider shall indemnify the Customer against that claim within the limits of § 13.

9.3 Duty to verify. The Customer shall verify all candidate information independently before making any decision that affects the candidate, and in particular before extending or withdrawing an offer. The Customer shall not rely on Platform data as the sole basis for any such decision.

9.4 AI-assisted ranking. Search results are ordered by an AI-assisted relevance ranking. The ranking measures textual and semantic similarity between the profile and the search query. It does not assess a candidate's suitability, competence or worth, it does not compare candidates against one another on any qualitative measure, and it produces no recommendation or decision.

9.5 Human decision-making. The Customer shall ensure that every decision concerning a candidate is taken by a natural person with the competence and authority to take it, on the basis of information beyond the Platform's ranking.

9.6 EU AI Act. The Platform falls within Annex III point 4 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act). Under Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 the obligations applicable to stand-alone high-risk systems listed in Annex III apply from 2 December 2027. Before that date the Provider will make available to the Customer the instructions for use and the technical information the Customer requires in order to meet its own obligations as a deployer under Art. 26 of the AI Act, including its obligations to inform workers' representatives (Art. 26(7)) and affected candidates (Art. 26(11)). Where the Provider makes available profile text generated or materially modified by a generative AI system, the Provider marks that output in machine-readable form in accordance with Art. 50(2) of the AI Act. The Customer shall use the Platform in accordance with the instructions for use, shall take measures to support the development of AI literacy among the staff who operate it (Art. 4 AI Act), and shall assign human oversight to persons with the necessary competence, training and authority.

§ 10 Fees, Invoicing and Payment

10.1 All prices are net and exclusive of statutory value added tax.

10.2 Cross-border supplies. Where the Customer is established in another EU Member State and provides a valid VAT identification number, the supply is invoiced without German VAT and the reverse charge procedure applies (§ 13b UStG, Art. 196 of Directive 2006/112/EC). The Customer warrants that its VAT identification number is valid and shall notify the Provider without undue delay of any change. Where the number proves to be invalid, the Customer shall bear any VAT, interest and penalties assessed against the Provider as a result.

10.3 Credits are payable on purchase. Placement fees are payable within fourteen (14) days of the invoice date.

10.3a Payment processing. Payments are processed by a third-party payment service provider. Card payments to customers in the European Economic Area may require strong customer authentication under Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2). A payment that fails because authentication was not completed is not a default of the Provider. The Provider does not receive or store full card numbers.

10.4 On default, the Provider is entitled to default interest of nine percentage points above the base rate (§ 288(2) BGB) and to the flat sum under § 288(5) BGB. The right to claim further damage caused by default remains unaffected.

10.5 The Customer may set off against claims of the Provider only with claims that are undisputed, ready for decision, finally determined by a court, or that arise from the same contractual relationship. The Customer may exercise a right of retention only in respect of claims arising from the same contractual relationship; § 369 HGB remains unaffected.

10.6 Invoicing. Invoices are issued electronically. The Customer shall maintain a channel capable of receiving structured electronic invoices conforming to EN 16931 (in particular XRechnung or ZUGFeRD). From the date on which the statutory obligation to issue structured electronic invoices applies to the Provider, invoices to Customers established in Germany will be issued in that format.

§ 11 Intellectual Property

11.1 All rights in the Platform — in particular in the software, the user interface and the ranking models — remain with the Provider or its licensors. To the extent the compiled candidate index constitutes a database within the meaning of § 87a UrhG, the Provider is its producer.

11.2 For the term of the contract the Provider grants the Customer a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use the Platform for the Customer's own recruitment purposes to the extent necessary for contractual use.

11.3 The rights of use in candidate data obtained through an Introduction are governed exclusively by §§ 5 and 7.

11.4 The Provider may name the Customer as a reference customer, including its logo, only with the Customer's prior consent in text form.

§ 12 Data Protection

12.1 Each party processes personal data on its own responsibility and in compliance with applicable data protection law.

12.2 The Provider's processing is described in the Privacy Policy at hacktalents.ai/privacy.

12.3 Roles. The Provider acts as controller in respect of the candidate index, candidate profiles, Interest Checks, Introductions, records of the Customer's interactions with the Platform, and the Customer's account and usage data. The Provider determines the purposes and means of that processing, including for the purpose of establishing and enforcing its own claims under § 6, and does not process it on the Customer's instructions.

12.3a Uploaded content. The Provider acts as processor in respect of documents the Customer uploads to the Platform — in particular job descriptions — and material derived from them, including vector representations generated for search. The data processing agreement at hacktalents.ai/dpa governs that processing, forms part of this contract, and applies to no other processing described in these Terms.

12.3b Customer warranty on uploads. The Customer shall not upload personal data beyond what is necessary to describe a role, and shall not upload candidate CVs, applicant data, special categories of personal data within the meaning of Art. 9 GDPR, or data relating to persons under 18. The Customer warrants that it is entitled to upload the content it uploads and that uploading it does not infringe third-party rights.

12.4 In respect of candidate data obtained through an Introduction the Provider and the Customer are separate, independent controllers (§ 5b.4). Neither party is authorised to act for the other, to accept requests from data subjects on the other's behalf, or to make representations about the other's processing.

12.5 Each party shall inform the other without undue delay of any supervisory authority enquiry, data subject request or personal data breach that concerns the other party's processing, to the extent permitted by law, and shall cooperate reasonably in responding to it.

§ 13 Warranty and Liability

13.1 Availability. The Provider owes an availability of the Platform of 99% per calendar month, measured at the transfer point to the internet and excluding maintenance announced at least 48 hours in advance and periods of disruption outside the Provider's control. The Provider does not owe uninterrupted availability.

13.2 The Provider's strict, fault-independent liability under § 536a(1) alt. 1 BGB for defects present at the time the contract was concluded is excluded.

13.3 The Provider is liable without limitation:

(a) for damage arising from injury to life, body or health; (b) for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence on the part of the Provider, its legal representatives or its vicarious agents; (c) for the fraudulent concealment of a defect; (d) to the extent of a guarantee given or a procurement risk assumed; (e) under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz).

13.4 Where the Provider slightly negligently breaches a material contractual obligation, the Provider's liability is limited to the damage that was foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded and is typical for this type of contract. Material contractual obligations are those obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place, and on whose observance the Customer regularly relies and may rely.

13.5 The foreseeable, contract-typical damage under § 13.4 is limited, per event of damage, to the lower of (i) twice the total net remuneration invoiced to the Customer in the twelve months preceding the event and (ii) EUR 50,000, and in any event to EUR 100,000 in aggregate per contract year. Where the Customer has been a customer for less than twelve months, the figure under (i) is extrapolated to twelve months.

13.6 Liability for slight negligence is otherwise excluded.

13.7 For loss of data the Provider is liable, within the limits above, only for the expenditure that would have been necessary to restore the data had the Customer carried out proper and regular backups.

13.8 The limitations in §§ 13.4 to 13.7 apply equally in favour of the Provider's legal representatives, employees and vicarious agents.

13.9 No change to the burden of proof to the Customer's detriment is associated with the provisions of this § 13.

13.10 Statutory limitation periods apply. Nothing in these Terms shortens the limitation period for claims arising from intent, gross negligence, injury to life, body or health, or under the Product Liability Act.

§ 14 Force Majeure

14.1 Neither party is liable for a failure to perform caused by an event beyond its reasonable control that it could not have averted with reasonable care, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, epidemics, industrial action not affecting its own workforce, failures of public telecommunications or energy networks, and orders of a court or authority.

14.2 The affected party shall inform the other without undue delay and shall use reasonable efforts to resume performance. Contractual obligations are suspended for the duration of the event. Where the event lasts longer than sixty (60) days, either party may terminate the contract in text form.

§ 15 Term and Termination

15.1 The contract runs for an indefinite period.

15.2 Either party may terminate the contract with thirty (30) days' notice to the end of a calendar month. Termination must be in text form.

15.3 The right of either party to terminate for good cause (außerordentliche Kündigung) remains unaffected. Good cause exists for the Provider in particular in the event of a material breach of § 8, or repeated failure to respond to requests under § 6.5a, that is not remedied within a reasonable period set for that purpose, or where setting such a period is dispensable.

15.4 On termination the Customer's access to the Platform ends. Credits acquired for payment are dealt with under § 4.4.

15.5 Obligations under §§ 5b.4, 5b.6, 6, 7, 8.3, 11, 12, 13 and 16 survive termination to the extent their nature so requires.

§ 16 Confidentiality

16.1 Each party shall keep confidential all non-public information of the other party that is marked as confidential or whose confidentiality is evident from the circumstances, and shall use it only for the purposes of this contract.

16.2 This does not apply to information that is publicly known, that was already lawfully known to the receiving party, that was developed independently, or whose disclosure is required by law, a court or an authority. In the last case the disclosing party shall inform the other party in advance where legally permitted.

16.3 candidate data obtained through an Introduction and the candidate index are confidential in every case.

16.4 This § 16 survives termination for three (3) years. In respect of candidate data obtained through an Introduction and the candidate index, the obligations under §§ 5b.6, 7 and 16.3 survive termination without limit of time.

§ 17 Changes to These Terms

17.1 The Provider may amend provisions of these Terms that concern neither the parties' principal obligations nor the relationship between performance and consideration — in particular not prices, scope of services, term or liability — where the amendment is necessary in order to:

(a) reflect a change in the law, in binding case law, or in an order of a court or authority; (b) close a gap that has arisen after conclusion of the contract through unforeseen circumstances and whose absence would materially impede performance; or (c) adapt technical or operational arrangements,

and where the amendment does not place the Customer in a worse position.

17.2 The Provider will notify the Customer of the amendment in text form at least six (6) weeks before it takes effect, presenting the amended provisions in comparison with the current ones and expressly drawing the Customer's attention to the amendment, to the Customer's right to object, to the period for objecting and to the effect of not objecting. If the Customer does not object in text form within six (6) weeks of receiving the notification, the amendment is deemed approved.

17.3 If the Customer objects, the contract continues on the existing terms. The right of either party to terminate under § 15.2 remains unaffected.

17.4 Any other amendment requires the Customer's agreement.

§ 18 Governing Law, Place of Jurisdiction, Language

18.1 These Terms and the contractual relationship are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

18.2 Where the Customer is a merchant (Kaufmann), a legal person under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with this contract is Munich, Germany. The Provider is also entitled to bring proceedings at the Customer's general place of jurisdiction. The same applies where the Customer has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany, or where the Customer's domicile or habitual residence is unknown at the time proceedings are commenced. Exclusive statutory places of jurisdiction remain unaffected.

18.3 Where the Customer has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany, the Provider may require the Customer to confirm the jurisdiction agreement in § 18.2 in writing (§ 126 BGB). Until such confirmation, the statutory rules on jurisdiction apply.

18.4 The contract language is English. Where the Provider publishes a German version of these Terms, the German version prevails for Customers whose registered seat is in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

§ 19 Final Provisions

19.1 Amendments and supplements to this contract should be made in text form (§ 126b BGB). Individual agreements made between the parties in an individual case take precedence in all cases (§ 305b BGB); no form requirement applies to such agreements.

19.2 The Customer may assign rights and obligations under this contract to a third party only with the Provider's prior consent in text form. § 354a HGB remains unaffected.

19.3 Should individual provisions of these Terms be or become invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of the remaining provisions is unaffected. The statutory provisions apply in place of the invalid provision.

Hack-Nation UG (haftungsbeschränkt) · Tal 44, 80331 München, Germany Amtsgericht München, HRB 304261 · VAT ID DE456131673

Version 1.0 · Effective 7 August 2026