I. Scope of application
1. The following contractual terms and conditions apply to all contracts between the contractual partner and Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH (hereinafter referred to as ‘Mesago’) regarding the use of advertising measures by Mesago. Advertising measures include indoor and outdoor advertising, digital advertising including podcasts, articles in Mesago newsletters, services from the Mesago media package and other advertising services (hereinafter collectively referred to as: ‘Services’). Depending on the scope of the Services requested by the contractual partner, supplementary general terms and conditions of Mesago may apply.
2. These contractual terms and conditions apply exclusively to entrepreneurs within the meaning of Section 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB) in the exercise of their commercial or self-employed professional activity and to legal entities under public law.
3. Terms and conditions of the contractual partner that have not been expressly agreed to in writing by Mesago shall not become part of the contract. These contractual terms and conditions shall also apply if Mesago provides the Service without reservation in the knowledge of conflicting, additional or deviating terms and conditions of the contractual partner. These contractual terms and conditions are an integral part of all offers and contracts for Services and also apply to future transactions between the contracting parties. Previous general terms and conditions and other regulations between the parties shall be replaced by these contractual terms and conditions in future, unless the parties of the contract have expressly agreed otherwise.
4. Rights to which Mesago is entitled under statutory provisions or other agreements beyond these contractual terms and conditions remain unaffected.
II. Orders/Conclusion of contract
1. Information provided by Mesago in the shop for exhibitor services, any service descriptions, advertising material for the services or in other documents and information provided by Mesago (‘Information’) does not constitute an offer by Mesago. This Information is provided without obligation and is non-binding, unless otherwise agreed in writing between the parties. This also applies if deadlines for ordering the service are included; this is solely for the purpose of planning Mesago's capacities and does not result in a binding offer.
2. By ordering a service, the contractual partner submits a binding offer. The order shall be placed in writing or in accordance with the form offered by Mesago or other forms specified in the Information. Other terms and conditions of Mesago and data protection agreements of Mesago included in the Information shall become part of the contractual partner's order. Mesago may accept the contractual partner's offer by sending an order confirmation to the contractual partner.
3. If Mesago confirms the contractual partner's order, the content of the order confirmation shall become binding between the parties, unless otherwise stipulated in these terms and conditions and the parties have agreed otherwise. The contractual partner must notify Mesago in writing of any deviations in the order confirmation from the order within 14 days, otherwise the confirmation from Mesago shall be deemed to have been accepted by the contractual partner.
4. Subsequent change requests by the contractual partner require written confirmation from Mesago to be effective.
5. Multiple contractual partners who jointly order a service are jointly and severally liable to Mesago.
6. Mesago may use external companies or subcontractors to provide the agreed services.
III. Services
1. Services are always subject to a charge for the contractual partner, unless they are already part of another contract between the parties, for example as part of a marketing package in connection with stand rental at a trade fair.
2. ‘Indoor Advertising’ is poster advertising and any type of print and multimedia advertising on a wide variety of advertising media and in various sizes inside a specific event during that event.
3. ‘Outdoor Advertising’ is advertising in the form of poster advertising or comparable advertising measures in various sizes, as well as flag advertising in the outdoor area of a specific event during this event.
4. The inclusion of an article in Mesago newsletters involves the transmission of a specialist article by the contractual partner to a group of recipients selected from the Mesago data pool according to criteria defined by the contractual partner, the publication of an article on an agreed homepage and/or the linking or sending of the article in an Mesago newsletter without a selected group of recipients.
5. ‘Digital Advertising’ is other advertising on the internet, in particular through banners, video clips, social media marketing or comparable advertising measures via other online channels, in particular the publication of paid content in Mesago podcasts.
6. These provisions apply accordingly to other advertising measures that Mesago offers to the contractual partner in return for remuneration.
IV. Prices, requirements, deadlines
1. Unless otherwise agreed or specified, the prices quoted by Mesago are net prices in euros. The applicable value added tax will be added.
2. Mesago's invoices are due for payment immediately without deduction.
3. Prices, content, quality and form requirements for services, agreed deadlines and other agreements in the order confirmation from Mesago, the information provided by Mesago and the order placed by the contractual partner shall become part of the contract in the order listed.
V. Obligations to cooperate and publication
1. The deadlines for sending print documents, posters, data, files and other necessary documents and information for the provision of services (hereinafter collectively referred to as ‘Documents’) can be found in the information provided by Mesago in accordance with section II.1 and, if applicable, in Mesago's order confirmation. In the event of discrepancies, the order confirmation shall prevail.
2. The contractual partner is responsible for the timely delivery of the Documents. If Documents for Services are not received on time, receipt may be rejected by Mesago.
3. The required quality of the Documents is determined by the information provided by Mesago in accordance with the above section II.1 and, if applicable, the order confirmation from Mesago. In the event of discrepancies, the order confirmation shall prevail. Documents that are of insufficient quality shall be deemed not to have been delivered. Mesago shall immediately notify the other party of any files that are recognisably unsuitable or damaged and request replacements. Mesago shall only guarantee the usual quality of the service within the scope of the possibilities offered by the Documents provided.
4. If any defects in the Documents are not immediately apparent but only become apparent during processing, the contractual partner shall bear any additional costs or losses incurred during processing.
5. Publication dates agreed between the parties are only binding for Mesago if the exhibitor has duly fulfilled its contractual obligations, in particular the timely and complete provision of Documents that meet the specified quality requirements.
6. Digital Advertising on the event website and via apps will be available for five weeks[AH1] after the event, Digital Advertising via other channels until a date to be announced by Mesago. Podcasts will be available for at least three months. Online newsletter articles will be available for at least three months. TechTalks will be available for at least eight weeks. This applies in each case unless otherwise agreed between the parties.
VI. Special conditions for indoor and Outdoor Advertising
1. Indoor and Outdoor Advertising on the premises of the respective event is generally only permitted for registered exhibitors or participants of the respective event. If the contractual partner intends to place other Indoor or Outdoor Advertising, e.g. advertising for third parties, on ordered advertising space, this is only permitted if Mesago has given its prior written consent. Mesago is entitled to remove unauthorised or unapproved Indoor or Outdoor Advertising measures outside the rented stand space, either itself or through vicarious agents, at the expense of the contractual partner and to store or dispose of them in accordance with Sections A.I.IX.1 and A.I.IX.3.
2. The contractual partner is responsible for providing flawless print documents that meet the technical requirements for file attachments at the event venue, which are linked in the information provided by Mesago. Advertising materials required for the provision of services by Mesago must be delivered by the contractual partner free of charge on the agreed date or to the location specified by Mesago. If a return delivery of the advertising materials provided by the contractual partner has been agreed with Mesago, this shall be carried out carriage forward from the place of use and at the risk of the contractual partner.
3. For colour prints, a colour proof must be enclosed. Otherwise, proper colour reproduction cannot be ensured. Mesago shall immediately request replacements for advertising templates that are recognisably unsuitable or damaged. Mesago provides for the print quality customary for poster and flag advertising within the scope of the possibilities offered by the print templates. Special graphic work and the production of films based on final artwork will be charged separately. If the contractual partner subsequently requests significant changes to the originally agreed designs, the resulting additional costs may be charged to the contractual partner separately.
VII. Special conditions for contributions to newsletters
1. The contractual partner orders the desired form of publication of their contribution in a newsletter to a specific group of recipients, on a homepage or to all recipients in the Mesago database by using the appropriate Mesago form for their order. The information in the order confirmation takes precedence over these terms and conditions.
2. Contributions to online newsletters can be included in text, video or image format.
3. The newsletters from Mesago are primarily intended for the professional development of the recipients. Despite the promotional background of the contribution, it must not have any obviously purely promotional content, but must meet the professional requirements of the newsletter in terms of content.
4. Contributions whose commercial purpose is not already apparent from their editorial design will be marked accordingly by Mesago.
5. The publication of an article shall take place at the time agreed by the parties, but no earlier than ten working days after the final content of the article has been sent. If the newsletter in question is sent out at regular intervals, publication is only possible at these intervals.
6. Distribution via ‘Community News‘
a) If the Service provides for a selection of recipients in accordance with the contractual partner's specifications, Mesago shall select this group of recipients from Mesago's database, taking into account the target group characteristics specified by the contractual partner.
b) The article will generally be published in English and must also be submitted in this form. The article will be published in German and must also be submitted in this form if it is aimed exclusively at a German target group.
c) After sending the contribution to the group of recipients, Mesago will send the contractual partner an evaluation of the open and click rates by the recipients (‘reporting’).
d) The reporting contains information about the open and click rates of the contribution. Mesago does not owe the contractual partner the achievement of a certain open or click rate, but only the evaluation of the actual opens and clicks after the contribution has been sent to the recipient group.
7. Distribution via ‘Industry News’
a) The article will be published on the agreed homepage in the ‘Industry News’ section. If the parties have agreed to this, a link to the article will also be sent in a newsletter to be specified to the recipients of this newsletter.
b) The article will generally be published in English and German and must be submitted in both languages, unless the parties agree otherwise.
VIII. Special Conditions for other Services
1. Mesago offers a wide range of other services to which these terms and conditions apply accordingly.
2. If online publications or email distribution are planned, such as for use on the Mesago career portal or inclusion in the Mesago event calendar, the special terms and conditions for contributions to newsletters apply accordingly. If a Service is to be sent to a specific group of recipients, the provisions on distribution in ‘Community News’ in accordance with Section VII.6 of these terms and conditions apply accordingly. If publication on a homepage, a link in a newsletter or publication in a newsletter to all recipients is intended, the provisions on sending in ‘Industry News’ in accordance with Section VII.7 shall apply accordingly. The same applies if the service provided by Mesago is the provision of a distribution list for invitations to a planned event.
3. If the contractual partner's participation or exhibition at an event is the subject matter of the contract, for example in the context of a seminar or ‘Meet & Treat’ event, the Terms and Conditions for Exhibitors shall also apply accordingly. These are available at the event-homepage and will be sent to the contractual partner upon request.
IX. Storage and return of advertising materials
1. Mesago shall store printed materials provided by the contractual partner for a period of two weeks after the end of the event. If the contractual partner provides original templates (digital data carriers, etc.), they undertake to produce duplicates.
2. If the contractual partner does not request the return of the advertising material provided up to one week before the event, Mesago shall be entitled to dispose of the advertising material provided at the expense of the contractual partner. If the contractual partner requests the return of the advertising material provided timely, the return shipment shall be made carria unpaid ex place of use and at the risk of the contractual partner.
3. Mesago shall not be liable for advertising materials that the contractual partner does not request to be returned up to one week before the event.
4. Sections A.I.IX.1 and A.I.IX.3 apply accordingly to advertising materials that Mesago produces or has produced for the contractual partner.
X. Warranty for Defects
1. The contractual partner is obliged to check the services provided by Mesago and to report any defects immediately. If, despite careful inspection, a defect only becomes apparent later, this must be reported immediately after it has been discovered.
2. In any case, complaints must be received by Mesago no later than seven days after the end of the event.
3. As a warranty, the contractual partner can only demand rectification. The manner of proper rectification is at the discretion of Mesago, Mesago is also free to replace the service at any time.
4. The contractual partner may only demand rescission of the contract or a reduction in remuneration if the rectification has failed, is no longer possible due to the passage of time (e.g. end of the event) or is unreasonable for Mesago.
5. Mesago may refuse to remedy defects as long as the contractual partner has not properly fulfilled its contractual obligations.
6. If the notice of defects is delayed, warranty claims shall expire in full. The same applies if the contractual partner makes changes itself or makes it difficult for Mesago to identify the defects.
7. The warranty period is one year. It begins with the acceptance of the service or, if acceptance is excluded due to the nature of the service, after the end of the event.
XI. Responsibility for content
1. Mesago accepts no liability for the content of advertising services provided by the contractual partner. The contractual partner is responsible for the content and legal admissibility of the text, image and video content provided for the contribution. The contractual partner indemnifies Mesago against any and all claims by third parties that arise for Mesago due to the content and legal admissibility of the contractual partner's contribution. Mesago does not check whether contributions infringe the rights of third parties and is not obliged to do so.
2. Mesago reserves the right to reject advertising orders or their execution on objectively justified grounds due to their content, origin or technical form if, in Mesago's reasonable opinion, their content violates laws, official regulations or public decency, or if their publication is unreasonable for Mesago. In doing so, Mesago takes into account not only the content but also the overall visual appearance of the advertising measures from a qualitative and aesthetic point of view. The contractual partner will be notified immediately of the rejection of an advertising order. The contractual partner will be given the opportunity to comment, which Mesago will take into account in its decision on rejection.
XII. Liability
1. Mesago shall only be liable for damages in the cases specified in points a) to d) below:
a) unlimited liability for injury to life, limb and/or health, as well as for damage caused intentionally or through gross negligence;
b) for damages resulting from the non-compliance with any written guarantees to the extent of the contractual partner's financial interest covered by the purpose of the guarantee and recognisable to Mesago at the time of issue;
c) in the event of mandatory statutory liability, for example under the German Product Liability Act;
d) for the breach of essential contractual obligations due to slight negligence, the resulting liability for damages is limited to the extent of damage that Mesago could typically have expected to occur at the time the contract was concluded based on the circumstances known to Mesago at that time. Essential contractual obligations are those fundamental obligations that were decisive for the conclusion of the contract and on whose compliance the customer could rely.
2. Otherwise, any liability for damages on the part of Mesago, regardless of the legal basis, is excluded, unless otherwise agreed in these terms and conditions or in other agreements between the parties.
3. In the cases referred to in Section A.I.XII.1.d), claims for damages and reimbursement of expenses shall become time-barred after twelve months. The limitation period shall commence in accordance with Section 199 of the German Civil Code (BGB).
4. Insofar as the liability of Mesago is excluded or limited, this also applies to the personal liability of the employees, workers, staff, representatives and vicarious agents of Mesago.
5. The above provisions do not imply any change in the burden of proof to the detriment of the contractual partner and do not exclude any claims expressly granted in these General Terms and Conditions or other agreements between the parties.
XIII. Data protection
1. The parties assume that certain processing of personal data within the scope of the cooperation, in particular but not exclusively with regard to Mesago's data records for newsletter mailings, is subject to joint responsibility within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR. The following provisions contain the provisions required under Art. 26 GDPR.
2. Mesago is responsible for all phases of data processing in which the parties are joint controllers for the processing of personal data within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR. Mesago has the authority to implement all decisions regarding data processing with regard to joint responsibility.
3. Subject of the data processing is the sending of emails. The customer specifies criteria on the basis of which Mesago selects suitable recipients for the emails from its database. The customer provides the editorially prepared content for the emails. Mesago creates and sends the emails. Mesago provides the customer with an evaluation of the click rates. The customer does not have access to the recipients' data. For the remaining process stages, for which there is no joint responsibility, each party is an independent controller within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR.
4. Mesago is responsible for compliance with the statutory provisions, in particular for ensuring the lawfulness of the data processing carried out by it within the scope of joint responsibility. In particular, it shall ensure that only personal data that is necessary for the provision of the service owed to the customer is used.
5. The parties assume that a data protection impact assessment is not necessary for the data processing agreed here. Should the data processing or the assessment of one party change, Mesago shall be responsible for preparing the data protection impact assessment.
6. Mesago shall ensure that all its employees involved in data processing maintain the confidentiality of the data and that they are made aware of the relevant data protection provisions before commencing their work.
7. Mesago shall prepare the documentation serving as proof of proper data processing and shall retain it for the duration of the processing.
8. Mesago is responsible for fulfilling the obligations under Articles 13 and 14 of the GDPR towards the data subjects.
9. Data subjects may assert their rights under Articles 15 to 22 GDPR against Mesago as the point of contact. It shall provide the information without delay, but no later than four calendar weeks after receipt of the request from the data subjects. The customer is obliged to support Mesago in fulfilling the rights of the data subjects. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the parties agree that data subjects may contact either party to exercise their rights. If the data subject contacts the customer, the customer shall forward the request to Mesago without delay.
10. Mesago shall make the essential content of this agreement on joint responsibility for data protection available to the data subjects.
11. Mesago is entitled to independently engage processors and shall conclude a contract in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR when engaging processors. Services that are used by third parties as ancillary services to support the performance of the contract (e.g. telecommunications services, maintenance of IT equipment) are not to be understood as processing.
12. The parties shall inform each other immediately and fully if they discover errors or irregularities in the processing activities with regard to compliance with data protection regulations, and if enquiries are received from data subjects or supervisory authorities.
13. If necessary, Mesago shall report any breach of personal data protection in accordance with Art. 33 GDPR to the supervisory authority responsible for it.
14. Insofar as the data subject must be notified of personal data breaches in accordance with Art. 34 GDPR, Mesago is obliged to do so with regard to the processing at issue here. It shall notify the customer in advance.
15. The parties are liable to data subjects in accordance with Art. 82 GDPR.
XIV. Force majeure and reservations
1. In the event of a compelling reason or force majeure for which the parties are not responsible (e.g. industrial action, official or legal orders, extreme weather conditions, disasters, war, terrorist threats, fire, danger to the life or health of participants, epidemic/pandemic situations, embargoes, energy shortages (in particular an emergency level declared by a competent federal ministry) or significant operational disruptions, in particular cyber attacks) for which neither party is responsible and which make the provision of the services or the execution of the event to which the services relate unreasonably difficult or impossible, both parties shall be released from their contractual obligations. Mesago reserves the right, in particular, to relocate events to another location, shorten them, close them in whole or in part, or cancel them if the reasons listed above apply. This may also have an impact on services, in particular in the case of Indoor and Outdoor Advertising. The remuneration to be paid by the contractual partner shall then be adjusted accordingly or shall be waived entirely in the event of complete cancellation or non-performance of the services owed. Each party shall bear its own expenses incurred up to that point. Services already rendered by the parties shall be returned.
2. Mesago shall also be entitled in particular to refrain from holding an event at its reasonable discretion and taking into account the legitimate interests of the participants if economic viability cannot be achieved or if the number of registrations indicates that the industry overview intended with the event cannot be guaranteed. Advertising measures related to this event shall be affected by the cancellation in the same way as the event itself. The cancellation shall render the mutual performance obligations of the contracting parties void. Mesago shall be obliged to refund any payments already made by the contractual partner, provided that the paid service has not yet been rendered at the time of cancellation. The contractual partner’s claims for reimbursement of expenses already incurred for cooperation in accordance with these terms and conditions or in any other way, or claims for damages, cannot be derived from the cancellation.
3. Mesago is in no way liable for economic success through services.
XV. Final provisions
1. Amendments or additions to the contractual relationship between the parties must be made in writing. This also applies to the waiver of this written form requirement.
2. Should any provision of the contract between Mesago and the contractual partner be or become wholly or partially invalid or unenforceable, or should there be a gap in the contractual provisions, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. In place of the invalid or unenforceable provision, a valid or enforceable provision shall be deemed to have been agreed which comes closest to the purpose of the invalid or unenforceable provision. In the event of a loophole, a provision shall be deemed to have been agreed which corresponds to what would have been agreed in accordance with the purpose of this contract, provided that the parties had considered the matter from the outset.
3. The contractual partner may only offset claims by Mesago with counterclaims that are undisputed or have been established by a final and binding court decision. The contractual partner may only assert rights of retention or rights to refuse performance if its counterclaim is based on the same contractual relationship.
4. The contractual partner is prohibited from assigning any claims against Mesago that are not directed at the payment of money to third parties if this conflicts with a legitimate interest of Mesago, unless a legitimate interest of the contractual partner outweighs this interest of Mesago.
5. The place of performance for this contract is the registered office of Mesago in Stuttgart.
6. The legal relationship between Mesago and the contractual partner shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11 April 1980.
7. The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from and in connection with the business relationship between Mesago and the contractual partner is Stuttgart, insofar as this is legally permissible. Mesago reserves the right to assert claims against the contractual partner at other legal places of jurisdiction.
As of October 2025