1. Scope of application

By using the websites of Springer-Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg, Zweigniederlassung der Springer-Verlag GmbH, Berlin, of Tiergartenstrasse 17, in D-69121 Heidelberg (hereinafter referred to as “Springer Nature” or “we”) which are available at springernature.com, you expressly agree to the following terms and conditions of use without any further declaration being required. Your use of these websites shall in each case be governed by the terms and conditions of use provided online at the time of your use. We do not recognise any conflicting or differing terms and conditions – unless we have specifically agreed otherwise in writing.

2. Content, offering, liability

The websites available at springernature.com offer information and products of Springer Nature itself and of third parties. To the extent that these originate from third parties, they are identified as such. Springer Nature shall only be liable for losses or damage arising from your reliance on information contained in such content/information you obtained by using springernature.com if the damage was caused by intent or gross negligence of Springer Nature's legal representatives or vicarious agents [“Erfüllungsgehilfen”], or if an obligation was breached due to slight negligence the discharge of which you could particularly rely on (a “cardinal obligation”).

As far as information and products offered by third-party businesses and individuals are concerned (e.g. discussion forums), Springer Nature only provides the technical platform. Such content/offers made available to you by third parties are property of their respective creators, authors or distributors and not of Springer Nature. Therefore, Springer Nature is under no circumstances responsible for the accuracy or reliability of such content, information or offerings. In particular, Springer Nature accepts no liability for any loss or damage you may incur through reliance on such information. Postings which are capable of causing damage to third parties or contain nothing but advertising statements will be deleted by the webmaster and, in the event of violations of criminal or competition law, reported immediately. Springer Nature expressly distances itself from all postings of this kind.

3. Copyright, right of use, content

All copyrights, proprietary rights and other third-party rights which are accessed via springernature.com remain the sole property of their respective holders and are protected accordingly. Unless otherwise stipulated in an individual case, you only have the statutory right to make a small number of copies of parts of the content, provided that such copies may only be made and used for personal purposes and it must be ensured that all copyright and other proprietary notices and their content are retained.

The content and data contained on the springernature.com websites are not permitted to be distributed in any form and must not be implemented on any third-party websites.

The databases pertaining to the website offering may not be used for commercial purposes without Springer Nature’s express prior consent. Misuse may also lead to criminal sanctions.

4. Availability

The availability of our websites at all times is not guaranteed. In particular, the websites may be temporarily unavailable for maintenance or technical reasons without this giving rise to any claims against us.

5. Data protection

Protecting the security and privacy of your personal data is of great importance to Springer Nature. For full information on this, please refer to Springer Nature’s current Privacy Policy for springernature.com .

6. Miscellaneous

All legal relationships arising from the use of websites available at springernature.com shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.

7. Severability

If any part of these General Terms and Conditions of Use is or becomes invalid, the validity of the remainder shall not be affected. The statutory provisions shall then apply instead of the invalid provision. The same shall apply if there is any gap in these General Terms and Conditions of Use.

Out-of-court settlements

We do not engage in out-of-court settlements before consumer arbitration bodies.