General Terms
and Conditions (GTC)

These General Terms and Conditions shall apply to all work entrusted to lestraducteurs.ch (particularly involving translation and proofreading, but also interpreting and any agreed consultancy services), unless other arrangements have been made in writing.

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations by lestraducteurs.ch shall be valid for 30 days as from the date they are drawn up.
Quotations provided by lestraducteurs.ch shall be for information purposes, unless other explicit arrangements have been made (for example a fixed-price offer).

Unless other arrangements have been made between the customer and lestraducteurs.ch, the translation is deemed to have been commissioned once the order confirmation has been issued by lestraducteurs.ch.
lestraducteurs.ch reserves the right to refuse commissions which it is unable to carry out due to leadtimes, capacities or other reasons, or indeed those which involve an unacceptable or illegal text.
lestraducteurs.ch does not accept any liability if the customer commissions it several times to work on the same text by mistake. In this case, lestraducteurs.ch may invoice for all the commissions placed with it.
If the customer commissions lestraducteurs.ch to carry out work for a third party (for example advertising agencies placing texts for translation on behalf of their clients), the customer shall be held responsible for the payment, unless lestraducteurs.ch is in possession of a written power of attorney from the third party which authorises the customer to commission work in the name of and on behalf of the third party.

lestraducteurs.ch shall carry out a translation as quickly as possible, in compliance with the commission and quality assurance.
Leadtimes shall only be mandatory if lestraducteurs.ch has explicitly confirmed in writing that they are.
For urgent commissions, lestraducteurs.ch reserves the right to apply an express delivery surcharge and/or to apply reservations with regard to quality.
lestraducteurs.ch shall deliver the translation via the means of transmission indicated in the order confirmation.
lestraducteurs.ch cannot be held liable for any delays or disruption in transmission.
If delivery is not possible due to a power outage or a disruption to electronic data transmission, it shall be made as soon as possible thereafter or another means of transmission shall be agreed. This does not authorise the customer to terminate the contract or to reduce the payment due.

Subject to any other explicit agreement (for example a fixed price), the amount due for the commissions carried out shall be invoiced by lestraducteurs.ch on the basis of the translation delivered (target language(s)) and according to the rates in the price list which are valid in each case. Messaging costs along with any special postage and communication duties may be charged to the customer.
Amounts owed to lestraducteurs.ch must be settled under the conditions laid down in the quotation or order confirmation.
The copyright on the translations carried out remains the property of lestraducteurs.ch until full payment has been received.

If a commission is cancelled by the customer or delayed to a later date, the customer shall be liable for payment for all the work and charges agreed, unless there is a special agreement.

lestraducteurs.ch undertakes to supply the translation to a professional standard that complies with what was laid down in the order confirmation (purpose, customer’s instructions, urgency etc.) and that is appropriate for the document.
The document provided by the customer to lestraducteurs.ch shall serve as a basis for the translation. However, lestraducteurs.ch shall not be obliged to adhere to the customer’s subjective stylistic preferences at any cost as far as the text is concerned. If these preferences are not met, the customer shall not have any right to reduce the price. In the event of any stylistic amendments, the customer shall be liable to pay any surcharges to lestraducteurs.ch for the modifications according to the agreed rates.
Translations which are intended for publication must always be sent to lestraducteurs.ch for proofreading (“OK for printing”) prior to printing, failing which lestraducteurs.ch cannot be held liable for any errors there may be in the translation. This proofreading does not include checking layout aspects or those relating to the format (for example page layout, allocation of texts to photographs, images or figures, etc.). Checking of this kind shall only be undertaken by lestraducteurs.ch where there is a special agreement and for a special payment.

lestraducteurs.ch shall not send the customer’s documents to third parties, except for its translators and – depending on the commission – graphic designers, printers, etc.
If the customer has not explicitly indicated that the text is confidential and if they have not given lestraducteurs.ch appropriate instructions regarding transmission (encoding of e-mails, delivery to a personal address, etc.), lestraducteurs.ch shall be entitled to deal with the customer’s documents and the translation as normal commercial correspondence and, in particular, it shall not be obliged to use any encoding for their e-mail transmission.

If the documents supplied by the customer are not clearly stated to be originals or are not clearly recognisable as such, lestraducteurs.ch shall be entitled to assume that they are copies. Unless otherwise explicitly requested by the customer, these shall not be returned.
lestraducteurs.ch shall be responsible for the customer’s original documents as long as they are in its safekeeping. Once the translation has been delivered and payment has been received, lestraducteurs.ch shall no longer be obliged to continue to keep the translations and documents supplied by the customer

In the event of force majeure (strike, fire, economic conflicts, natural catastrophes, acts of war) and of any other events which are unforeseeable or outside the influence of lestraducteurs.ch (such as a breakdown or disruption of electronic transmission) which have a verifiable effect on the performance of the contract, lestraducteurs.ch must immediately inform the customer, indicating the circumstances. Force majeure authorises both parties, that is lestraducteurs.ch and the customer, to terminate the contract.
However, in all cases, the customer shall be liable to pay lestraducteurs.ch for the work already carried out and delivered, along with the costs relating to this.

Requests for modifications or complaints must be sent to lestraducteurs.ch by the customer in writing at the latest within 5 days of the work being delivered and with an indication of the reason for the complaint.
In the event of complaints where the causes can be attributed to lestraducteurs.ch, the latter shall amend the translation involved or have the text retranslated at its own cost.
Any more extended warranty is explicitly rejected by lestraducteurs.ch.

The place of performance for all the obligations arising from the commission, along with the SOLE PLACE OF JURISDICTION shall be in Vevey. Each commission given to lestraducteurs.ch shall be subject to Swiss law, in particular to article 363 et seq. (contract for work and services) of the Swiss Code of Obligations.