Confused about "right of withdrawal"

Cubase
,
1

I’m a bit confused by the “Information on the right of withdrawal for consumers in accordance with Section 13 BGB” as it says in section 20(1):

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within fourteen days without stating reasons. The period of revocation is fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

but then in section 20(2) it says:

  1. Premature expiration of the right of withdrawal

Nexway AG is very eager, including in the case of digital content, for the customer to essentially have the possibility to return digital content if they are not satisfied and to withdraw from the contract. The legislator, however, provides that the right of withdrawal shall expire if the entrepreneur has started the execution of the contract, after

a) the consumer has expressly agreed that the entrepreneur begins the execution of the contract before the end of the withdrawal period, and

b) has confirmed his knowledge that he loses his right of withdrawal by his agreement regarding the start of execution of the contract.

This premature expiration of the right of withdrawal is due to the fact that digital content - once it has been downloaded - may be easily reproduced in contrast to physical objects and, therefore, there is also the possibility of the digital content remaining on the end device of the customer even in the event of withdrawal from the contract. By taking note of the information on the right of withdrawal, the customer expressly agrees to the execution of the contract by the entrepreneur before the expiry of the withdrawal period and confirms his knowledge that he will lose his right to withdrawal with the beginning of the execution of the contract.

So does section 20(2) cancel out section 20(1)?

Is there a difference between “conclusion of the contract” and “the execution of the contract”?

It says “This premature expiration of the right of withdrawal is due to the fact that digital content - once it has been downloaded - may be easily reproduced in contrast to physical objects” but as I understand it, anyone can download the software without buying it, they just can’t run it without buying an activation code, so I don’t understand this.

2

I haven’t the slightest idea, since this is legal jargon.

You can be sure that any answer you get here, on the user-to-user forum will not be authoritative.

I suppose they had a law firm write that, and a law firm also looked at their refund policy, so if I had the question you’re asking I would look for the refund policy.

3

Practically, I think the actual activation of the license bought is some kind of red line regarding “the right of withdrawal”.
No guarantee though…

But as long as you havn’t activated the license, they could make the license code invalid. And since you then can’t use the license then they could give a refund. But if the license has been activated, you can use the program. It should still be possible to make the license invalid when connecting to internet, but on the other hand you could theoretically use the program forever on a computer never connected to internet.

I think that the juridical “execution of the contract” can translate into activation of the license. Maybe… :question: :confused:
If so, you could withdraw within 14 days as long as you have not activated the license. When activated, the right of withdrawal vanishes.
Well, that’s my thoughts about it. I could be wrong.

4

I think you’re probably right. It reads like it’s been poorly translated into english. In a native english contract instead of:

The legislator, however, provides that the right of withdrawal shall expire if the entrepreneur has started the execution of the contract

I think it would say something like:

The applicable law, however, provides that the right of withdrawal shall expire if the customer has activated the license.

@-steve- I found Steinberg’s refund policy at Legal Terms | Steinberg and it’s a bit easier to understand:

The terms and conditions for use of Steinberg software / hardware by you, the end user (hereinafter termed “Licensee”) appear below. By installing the software on your computer you agree to these terms and conditions. Please read the following text carefully in its entirety. If you do not approve these terms and conditions, you must not install this software.

In this event give back the product back to where you have purchased it (incl. all written material, the complete undamaged packing as well as the enclosed hardware) immediately but at the latest within 14 days in return for a refund of the purchase price.

but that still doesn’t really make a lot of sense in this context, as “installing the software” is something anyone can do without buying it and is not the same as activating it. It seems obvious that activating it is what they mean, as they can’t possible know if someone has installed the software unless they’ve activated it but when it comes to T&C and contracts it’s preferable if there’s no ambiguity.

I was disappointed to find that Asknet send customers their activation codes, worth several hundred pounds each, by email, as it’s well known that email isn’t secure and if someone intercepted the email in transit and used the code or sold it on to someone who used it, the customer would never be able to prove that they hadn’t used it themselves.

Anyway I’ve contacted Asknet to request a refund as I’ve found I can buy the boxed version of Artist 10.5 (which is really just an activation code and the USB dongle) for £50 cheaper from a retailer than buying the code and dongle from Steinberg directly, so hopefully there won’t be any problems with the refund.

5

So what happened? Did you get a refund?

6

Yeah, they just had to check with Steinberg that the code hadn’t been activated and then they refunded me. I’m still not impressed that they send the codes out by insecure email though, as it would have been impossible for me to prove if someone else had intercepted the email en-route and used the code or sold it on to someone else who had. So I won’t be buying anything else from Asknet in future.