General Conditions of Sale

 

SMC GENERAL CONDITIONS OF SALE

These General Conditions of Sale will govern the contractual relations between SMC España, S.A.U. with tax residence in Vitoria-Gasteiz, calle Zuazobidea, 14, and with VAT number: A01019751, hereinafter, "SMC" and its Clients (hereinafter, the "Client"), derived from the sales of Products and/or services (hereinafter, the "Products") that SMC creates/provides for the Client for the orders that the latter places and that SMC accepts.

 

1. General dispositions

This agreement will be the framework for action in the commercial relationship between SMC and the Client and will be generally applicable in the absence of an express agreement to the contrary.

The particular agreements signed between both parties may be formalised by signing another document that includes the new agreements. The different headings of this document are independent from each other, meaning that if any of them turns out to be null or voidable, the rest of the agreements will remain in force and effective. Likewise, if any content is contrary to mandatory regulations, its text must be considered modified in accordance with said regulation. Should, for the above or similar reasons, any section of this document need to be updated, said update will be carried out in accordance with the intention or purpose of the original content.

 

2. Sale price

The sale prices of the Products will be those set out in the offers and rates of SMC or in the particular conditions agreed between SMC and the Client. The corresponding taxes must be added to these prices.

Additionally, an amount of €10 will be charged for each order as a supply charge (handling, packaging and transport).

National shipment of the material is carried out by a transport company chosen by SMC.

For international shipments, other shipping conditions may be agreed with the Client in each specific case.

The price rate does not include the installation or set-up of the product. If the client needs this service, they should notify SMC so that it can be offered. Likewise, the price rate does not include any waste management that the supplied product may require, which will be the responsibility of the client. If, upon the client's request, actions aimed at reducing the environmental impact of the packaging during its life cycle should be required, SMC may pass on the costs incurred to the client.

SMC reserves the right to modify the rate price at any time and without prior notice, respecting the prices in current offers or orders in progress.

Equally, SMC may make offers to apply a discount to the rate price for certain Products. The offer will guarantee, during its validity period, the price of each reference only for the quantities that appear in the document. In the event of lower order quantities, SMC may review the offer and, prior communication to the Client, modify the price based on the units requested. Offers will have a validity period of 60 days, losing all validity once this period has elapsed.

 

3. Billing and payment conditions

SMC will bill, on the days previously agreed with the client, all the orders completed during the month and in accordance with the agreed delivery conditions.

If, upon the client's request and not due to SMC's error, an invoice has to be modified or rewritten, the new invoice will retain the payment date corresponding to the initial invoice.

The means of payment will be completed in the terms established at the beginning of the commercial relationship and in its successive updates. The payment term will be the one agreed between the parties and never higher than that established by current legislation.

In the case of non-compliance with the deadlines established in the invoices, SMC reserves the right to terminate any previous agreement on payment terms with the client and establish others unilaterally, this modification will also apply to orders in progress and previously accepted.

 

4. Orders

The minimum information that must be stated on an order to SMC is:

  • The requester's VAT number, business name and other billing information
  • Essential data for the provision of service:
    • Item code or SMC reference
    • Quantity of each reference requested
    • Shipping address
    • Required delivery date
  • Contact details for any communication related to the order

 

In any case, it will be understood that the Client acknowledges and accepts the content of these general conditions of sale upon completion of the order, also declaring that they have been able to review them in advance with enough time for their total and full acceptance Should the Client not provide all the information indicated in the previous point, SMC reserves the right not to accept the order and/or request the necessary data from the Client for its correct execution.

In the latter case, if the required additional information is not provided within a period of 5 business days, SMC may accept the order in accordance with the available data, or reject it, in both cases being exempt from all liability. Once the order has been placed and expressly or tacitly accepted according to the indicated terms, it will be final and binding for both parties.

From the moment that the order confirmation is sent, no term will be subject to revision or modification unless expressly accepted by SMC or when there has been an error on the part of SMC that justifies such actions (See "Modification, suspension, cancellation of order").

 

5. Delivery

SMC will provide the Client with the best delivery times it can offer, based on the service available at any given time, including the possibility of splitting the delivery of orders.

SMC will in no case be responsible for any direct or indirect damages caused by the delay in delivery of the Products, when this is due to force majeure, in accordance with clause 15 or when the delay is not attributable solely to SMC. Should the delivery date be modified, SMC will notify the Client of said modification as soon as possible.

If, for reasons attributable to the client, the delivery is not completed or is delayed, SMC may demand compensation equivalent to the direct and indirect damages that the delay or impossibility of delivery may have caused. Likewise, SMC may invoice the client for the expenses derived from storage during the additional period that the material remains in its facilities.

 

6. Modification, suspension, cancellation of order

When the client communicates their desire to modify or cancel an order in writing, or SMC is obliged to do so for reasons attributable to the client (due, for example, to incidents in the payment of invoices), SMC will inform the client of the costs of the corresponding modification, suspension or cancellation and these will be billed under the usual billing conditions.

If the modification, suspension or cancellation does not imply any cost for SMC, it will be carried out without additional costs for the client.

 

7. Product ownership and responsibility

SMC will retain full ownership of the Products sold to the Client when the latter has not paid the full amount of the corresponding invoice. However, once the product has been delivered to the Customer, its integrity will become the responsibility of the latter.

Likewise, the client must ensure, under their responsibility, that the installation of the SMC product is carried out correctly and safely. Additionally, it is the Client's responsibility to comply with the measures that guarantee the health and safety of people, and SMC will not be held responsible for any incident derived from non-compliance in this area.

The liability of SMC towards the Client for any concept derived, directly or indirectly, from the supply of the Products and/or the provision of Services (including, but not limited to, compensation for damages derived from contractual breaches, penalties for delays, liability for defective products, etc.) will not exceed, under any circumstances, the price paid for the Products and services supplied by SMC and referring to the order that is the subject of the claim.

 

8. Returning material

An essential condition for the acceptance of a return is to have enough data in writing to identify the original shipment (detailed in clause 4), as well as a technical justification stating the reason for the return and that the material is in perfect condition for sale. In any case, returns will not be accepted after 180 days from the delivery date of the material.

Once the return process is accepted, the client will send the material to SMC accompanied by the return documentation provided by SMC.

SMC will inspect the returned material and if it meets the established conditions, it will proceed to pay the full amount invoiced. If the necessary conditions are not met, the material, fully or partially, as appropriate, will be returned to the customer with unpaid postage.

 

9. Incidents in the delivery or the operation of the product

The Client must notify SMC of any incident as soon as it is detected.

If, when the material is received, the client observes any damage to the packaging or the product itself, this must be reflected in the transport document. Otherwise, SMC will not accept a claim for this reason.

The reporting period for incidents related to shipping (reference, quantity, state of the material, etc.) will be 60 days from receipt. This period will not apply to problems related to the operation of the product, in which case the conditions of the product guarantee apply (see clause 10).

Communication of the incident must be made in writing and contain sufficient information to identify the order and the reference object of the claim, as well as the reason for said claim.

SMC will dedicate the necessary time to analysing the incident and finding out the causes thereof, reviewing all the information available in detail and guaranteeing diligence at all times. In any case, SMC undertakes to carry out said analysis within a maximum period of 90 business days. Once the incident has been analysed, SMC will communicate the result to the Client and agree with them how to manage the solution.

SMC will solely and exclusively assume the cost derived from the correction of the error, this being their maximum liability cost (see clause 10). Under no circumstances will SMC assume additional costs or accept the imposition of compensation of any kind as stipulated in clauses 7 and 10.

SMC will not accept any claim, even if the conditions for it have been met, if the product has been previously tampered with (modification, disassembly, repair, etc.) by the client or third party.

 

10. Limited warranty and liability release

The warranty period for SMC Products is indicated in the corresponding catalogue, which is generally 12 months from the set-up or 18 months from the delivery date, whichever is earlier.

In the event of any failure or damage occurring during the warranty period and exclusively attributable to the supplied product, SMC will replace it with a new one (the same, similar or alternative to the original), repair the defective product or provide the necessary spare parts. The decision on how to remedy the product failure is the sole responsibility of SMC.

This warranty is limited solely and exclusively to the product, and does not cover any damage, both direct and indirect, caused by the failure of the product or loss or other damage due to causes not attributable to SMC, therefore the maximum liability that SMC assumes is limited to value of the product supplied.

Should actual working conditions or other conditions differ from those originally stated and relied upon by SMC, any warranty shall be null and void.

See the section "Incidents in the delivery or the operation of the product" to find out the limitation in the application of the warranty in Products that have been subject to any type of manipulation outside SMC.

 

11. Repairs

Should the material be repairable, SMC will send the Client the revision estimate. If the client accepts this, they must send the material to SMC accompanied by the signed document. SMC will not proceed with the review of the material if it does not come with this documentation. Without prejudice to the general warranty, any repair carried out on the product will have a warranty period of 3 months that will apply exclusively to the parts repaired.

 

12. Use of Products and Services

It is the client's responsibility to use the product for industrial applications or for a didactic-training purpose in the case of International Training Products, without exceeding the limits of conditions for which the product has been designed, and taking into account all current legislation.

Should any product supplied by SMC be intended by the Client for any application that is subject to specific regulation, the Client shall be obliged to notify SMC and SMC reserves the right to request an exemption from responsibility for the supply of said Products in writing.

SMC reserves the right not to accept Client orders in the event of any restriction on the Products, in particular export restrictions under the classification of Dual-Use Goods or embargoes.

The Client must comply with the regulations and collaborate, if necessary, with SMC in order to comply with them.

SMC's liability shall be limited to the Client's compliance with their obligations.

 

13. Use of the SMC brand

All the elements that are the subject of intellectual or industrial property or any know-how, manufacturing process, method, formula, data, plan and in general any information that SMC has communicated to the buyer or of which the latter has been made aware when ordering, are the exclusive property of SMC; they may not be used by the Client, reproduced, communicated to third parties under any concept or modality without their written authorisation. The Client undertakes to preserve the confidentiality of all information and especially all the modalities of use of the product that may have been communicated by SMC regarding the order, for a period of 10 years from when the order is placed.

 

14. Data Protection

In accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and Council of April 27th, 2016, regarding the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and the free circulation of said data and by which Directive 95/46/CE (“RGPD”) and Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5th, on the Protection of Personal Data (“LOPD-GDD”) and guarantee of digital rights, are repealed, we inform you that the Client's personal data will be processed by SMC España, S.A.U. (“SMC”) as they are necessary for the execution of the contract to which it is a party, specifically, for the management of orders. Their data will not be transferred to third parties nor will international transfers thereof be made.

The Client may exercise their rights (e.g. rights of access, rectification, deletion, opposition, portability and limitation), in accordance with the RGPD and the LOPD-GDD, by writing to the following email address gdpr@smc.smces.es

The Client can find additional information in the privacy policy of the website https://www.smc.eu/es-es/politica-de-privacidad.

 

15. Force Majeure

Neither party will be responsible for the delay in execution or non-performance of its obligations resulting from events or circumstances beyond its control such as wars, fire, labour disputes, trade conflicts, license denials, except when the above circumstances are the consequence of a breach of the party invoking it.

Said lack of execution or delay will not be considered a contractual breach, and the execution period will be extended for a period of time equivalent to that in which the execution of the obligation has been prevented. If the delay or non-performance continues for a period of three months, either party may terminate the contract with respect to the Products that have not yet been delivered to the client. In case of resolution under these circumstances, neither party may claim indemnity or compensation of any kind.

 

16. Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

SMC and the client undertake to amicably resolve any disagreement that may arise with respect to these general conditions. However, if this is not possible and legal proceedings become necessary, both parties agree to submit to the Courts and Tribunals of the city of Vitoria (Álava).

 

SMC ESPAÑA S.A.U.

All the clauses in these general conditions of sale shall be effective as of the 21st of June, 2023