German original: Allgemeine Nutzungsbedingungen
General Terms of Use
§ 1 Scope and definitions
(1) These Terms of Use govern the legal relationship between Martin Pfeffer, Flughafenstraße 24, 12053 Berlin (hereinafter the “Operator”) and the user (hereinafter the “User”) in connection with the use of the web application ViaCamp at via.camp (hereinafter the “Service”).
(2) A consumer within the meaning of these Terms of Use is any natural person who uses the Service for purposes that can predominantly be attributed neither to their commercial nor to their independent professional activity (§ 13 BGB, German Civil Code).
(3) Deviating, conflicting or supplementary terms of the User shall not become part of the contract unless the Operator expressly agrees to their validity in writing.
§ 2 Description of services and availability
(1) ViaCamp is a Progressive Web App (PWA) for camping travellers. The range of functions includes:
- Searching for and displaying pitches on an interactive map (over 55,000 spots in 52 countries)
- Customisable camping checklist by travel type
- Trip planning with route calculation and vehicle profile (height, width, weight)
- Community reviews, photos and spot suggestions
- Weather forecasts, POI layers (drinking water, toilets, petrol stations, etc.)
- Camping calculators (gas, water, electricity, fuel costs)
- Offline use of certain content via service worker
(2) The Service is provided as Software as a Service (SaaS). Installation on the end device is optional (PWA).
(3) The Operator endeavours to ensure high availability of the Service (target: 99%), but does not guarantee any particular availability. Maintenance work, attacks by third parties or outages of third-party providers (in particular map service, routing) may lead to temporary restrictions.
(4) The Operator reserves the right to extend or change the range of functions or — where there is a legitimate interest and while safeguarding the interests of Users — to discontinue individual functions.
§ 3 Conclusion of contract and registration
(1) The usage contract is concluded by the User’s registration and the Operator’s acceptance of the registration (provision of the account). Use without registration (merely viewing public spots) is also possible; these terms also apply to such use, insofar as applicable.
(2) Registration is possible in three ways:
- via Google account (OAuth)
- via magic link (one-time login by email)
- via email and a self-chosen password
(3) By completing registration, the User agrees to these Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy.
(4) Minimum age: Use is permitted for persons who have reached the age of 16 (Art. 8 GDPR in conjunction with § 1(1) BGB). For minors under 16, the consent of the persons with parental responsibility is required.
(5) Contract text: The Operator does not store the contract text (these Terms of Use) separately. The User can view and print the currently valid version at any time at via.camp/legal/agb.html.
(6) The contract language is German.
§ 4 User account, access data
(1) Each User may create only one user account. Transfer of the account to third parties is not permitted.
(2) The User is obliged to keep their access data (password, magic link, session token) secret and to protect it against access by third parties.
(3) If unauthorised use of the account is suspected, the User is obliged to notify the Operator without undue delay and to change their password.
(4) The Operator is entitled to temporarily block or permanently delete the user account if the User violates these Terms of Use, in particular in the case of § 7(2).
§ 5 Free and paid use
(1) The basic functions of ViaCamp can be used free of charge and without advertising.
(2) Additional functions (such as unlimited trips, advanced filters, route optimisation, live weather) may in future be offered as a paid premium subscription. Prices, terms, payment conditions and notice periods will be communicated separately before the contract is concluded.
(3) Pathfinder programme (“Pfadfinder-Programm”): The first 250 registered users (“Pathfinders”) receive lifelong premium access free of charge (“Lifetime Premium”). This benefit is granted automatically upon registration as long as the total number of users has not exceeded the upper limit stored in lib/db.js. A legal entitlement to the Lifetime Premium offer only arises upon successful allocation at registration.
(4) Operator listing on ViaCamp: Campsite operators can apply for a free operator listing. This comprises displaying the site in the app + map, an enquiries inbox, spot management via the operator page and statistics tools. The basic listing is and remains free of charge. Optional premium add-ons (featured status, extended photo gallery, premium profile) are subject to a charge at the respective current prices (see b2b page) and can be cancelled monthly. Conditions will be communicated separately upon invitation.
§ 6 Right of withdrawal for consumers
When concluding a paid premium contract, consumers have a right of withdrawal under §§ 312g, 355 BGB:
You have the right to withdraw from this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the day the contract is concluded.
To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us (Martin Pfeffer, Flughafenstraße 24, 12053 Berlin, email: martin@via.camp) of your decision to withdraw from this contract by means of a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or email). To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.
Effects of withdrawal: If you withdraw from this contract, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you without undue delay and in any event not later than fourteen days from the day on which we are informed about your withdrawal from this contract. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.
Special note for digital content: If you requested that the services begin during the withdrawal period, you shall pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of services already provided up to the time of withdrawal in comparison with the full scope of services provided for in the contract.
§ 7 Obligations of the user
(1) The User undertakes to use the Service lawfully and as intended.
(2) The following are prohibited in particular:
- Automated reading of the Service (scraping, crawling), unless expressly permitted by a public API
- Overloading the infrastructure through excessive or abusive requests
- Circumventing or impairing security and access controls
- Exploiting technical security vulnerabilities, unless within the framework of responsible disclosure to martin@via.camp
- Use under a false name, with falsified details or third-party identities
- Posting malware, viruses or manipulated files (uploads)
- Circumventing the limits for free use (e.g. through multiple accounts)
(3) In the event of a violation, the Operator is entitled to block use and to delete the account after a prior warning. In the case of serious violations (e.g. attacks on the infrastructure), blocking without prior warning is permissible.
§ 8 User-generated content and grant of rights
(1) The User can post reviews, photos, pitch suggestions, text comments and other content (“User Content”).
(2) With each upload, the User warrants that
- they hold all necessary rights to the posted content,
- the content does not infringe any rights of third parties (in particular copyright, personality, trademark or data protection rights),
- the content does not violate applicable law.
(3) By uploading, the User grants the Operator a simple (non-exclusive), free-of-charge right of use, unlimited in time and territory, to store, reproduce, publicly communicate and make available the User Content within the scope of the Service. This right also includes display in search engine results and in social media previews (Open Graph).
(4) The User remains the author and may delete their content or request its deletion at any time.
(5) Prohibited content — the User may not post any content that:
- is unlawful, insulting, discriminatory, glorifies violence or is immoral,
- incites hatred or is anti-constitutional (§§ 130, 86 StGB, German Criminal Code),
- contains advertising, spam or affiliate links without labelling,
- infringes the personality rights of third parties (in particular recognisable persons in photos without their consent),
- contains copyright-protected works without authorisation.
(6) The Operator is entitled to remove content in the event of violations of these terms or upon becoming aware of infringements, even without prior notification of the User.
§ 9 Data sources and data accuracy
(1) The pitch data originates from public sources: OpenStreetMap under the Open Database License (ODbL) and Wikidata under CC0.
(2) Weather data originates from OpenWeather.
(3) The data is provided without guarantee as to accuracy, completeness and timeliness. In particular, prices, availability, opening hours and directions may change at any time. Before travelling, the User is obliged to obtain current information directly from the respective provider.
(4) The User acknowledges that route suggestions and vehicle warnings (height, width, weight) are only guidance and do not replace their own responsibility as a driver. Road signs, local restrictions and the road traffic regulations (Straßenverkehrsordnung) must always be observed.
§ 10 Liability
(1) The Operator is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence as well as for damage resulting from injury to life, body or health.
(2) For other damage, in the case of slight negligence the Operator is only liable for breach of an essential contractual obligation (cardinal obligation). In this case, liability is limited to the damage foreseeable and typical for the contract.
(3) Essential contractual obligations are those obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose compliance the User may regularly rely.
(4) Liability under the Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) remains unaffected.
(5) The Operator is not liable for:
- the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of third-party data (see § 9),
- damage caused by an incorrect choice of route or incorrect vehicle details,
- damage caused by User Content (for which the respective User is responsible),
- outages or malfunctions of third-party services (map service, routing, weather),
- damage caused by force majeure, network outages or attacks by third parties.
§ 11 Indemnification in the event of infringements
The User indemnifies the Operator against all claims of third parties (including reasonable legal costs) asserted by third parties against the Operator on the basis of content posted by the User or through use of the Service in breach of these Terms of Use.
§ 12 Term and termination
(1) The usage contract is concluded for an indefinite period.
(2) The User can terminate the contract at any time without notice by deleting their account. Deletion is carried out by email to martin@via.camp.
(3) The Operator can terminate the contract with four weeks’ notice to the end of a month. The right to extraordinary termination for good cause (in particular in the event of violations of § 7) remains unaffected.
(4) Upon termination of the contract, all of the User’s personal data, checklists, trips, reviews and photos are irrevocably deleted. This does not apply to public, anonymised spot edits in the version history that are necessary for data integrity.
§ 13 Changes to these Terms of Use
(1) The Operator reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use, in particular in the event of:
- changes in the legal situation,
- supreme court case law that makes an amendment necessary,
- extension or change of the range of functions,
- adaptation to technical or organisational circumstances.
(2) Registered Users will be informed of changes at least six weeks before the planned entry into force by email to the stored address or by a clearly visible in-app notification.
(3) The User may object to the changes within six weeks of receipt of the notification. In the event of an objection, the contract ends when the change takes effect. If no objection is made within the period, the changes are deemed accepted. This consequence will be expressly pointed out again in the change notification.
§ 14 Dispute resolution
The Operator is neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board (§ 36 Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz, VSBG — German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act).
§ 15 Final provisions
(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. For consumers, this choice of law applies only insofar as it does not deprive them of the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which the consumer has their habitual residence.
(2) If the User is a merchant within the meaning of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch), a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contractual relationship is the Operator’s place of business (Berlin). The Operator is also entitled to sue the User at their general place of jurisdiction.
(3) Should individual provisions of these Terms of Use be or become invalid in whole or in part, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected. The invalid provision shall be replaced by the statutory provision (severability clause).
(4) Amendments and supplements to this contract require text form. This also applies to the waiver of this text form requirement.