General Terms of Use (Users)

The following terms of use apply to the use of the platform Knowunity, which is offered and operated by us, Knowunity GmbH, Julie-Wolfthorn-Straße 1, 10115 Berlin. They apply to all users of Knowunity. For users who wish to post learning content on Knowunity as so-called "Knower", special terms of use for Knowers also apply.

1. Subject matter of the contract, scope of application and further GTC of the app stores

1.1 Knowunity is a learning platform (website and apps for Apple and Android) for students that offers school material and learning content for school subjects from years 7 to 13, tutoring services and interaction opportunities with other students. In particular, it includes school documents and learning content as well as background information posted by members of the Knowunity community (so-called "Knower"). Knowunity offers free as well as paid content and usage options. 1.2 This document contains the General Terms and Conditions of Use and forms the legal basis for the use of Knowunity by students (hereinafter referred to as "users") including knowers who post learning content on Knowunity. They apply in their current version and must be expressly accepted at the time of registration and when booking offers that are subject to a fee, and they form the basis for the use of the Knowunity offer. 1.3 For Knowers, i.e. users who wish to post learning content on Knowunity, the Special Terms of Use for Knowers apply in addition, which must be accepted separately by Knower for the posting of content. 1.4 When downloading the Knowunity App and making purchases via the Apple App Store, Apple's Terms and Conditions apply in addition to these Terms and Conditions, which can be accessed here: https://www.apple.com/uk/legal/internet-services/itunes/uk/terms.html. 1.5 When downloading the Knowunity App and making Google Play Store purchases, the Google Play Store Terms and Conditions apply in addition to these Terms and Conditions, which are available here: https://play.google.com/intl/en-US_us/about/play-terms/index.html. 1.6 These T&Cs apply to users who register for the German-language version of Knowunity.

2. Minimum age, registration and consent of your parents or legal guardians

2.1 The use of Knowunity requires prior registration. If you are younger than seven years old, you are unfortunately not allowed to register with Knowunity and therefore cannot use the service yourself. 2.2 If you are at least seven years old but not yet 18, your parents or legal guardians must expressly agree to your registration, even if you only want to use Knowunity's free content.

3. Paid content ("Knowunity Pro")

3.1 Knowunity offers a variety of school documents and learning content as well as background information, which you can use free of charge. In addition, Knowunity offers functionalities that require a paid subscription ("Knowunity Pro") (e.g. print options, offline mode, etc.). You may only take out this subscription if you yourself are 18 years old or, if you are between 7 and 18 years old, your parents or legal guardians expressly agree to this. 3.2 The scope of services and the current prices for Knowunity Pro can be found on the Knowunity Pro page. The contract can be concluded via the Knowunity website or via the Knowunity app as in-app purchases. The fees are paid monthly. 3.3 To purchase Knowunity Pro on the Knowunity website, the name and e-mail address of the ordering parent or guardian, the name of the child and payment information (direct debit, credit card, instant bank transfer) must be entered on the order form. Then the current terms of use must be accepted and it must be stated whether the expiry of the right of withdrawal (see point 4) is agreed to. By clicking on "Pay now" the contract is concluded. You can correct your details before this click. After concluding the subscription, you will receive a corresponding confirmation by e-mail, which also contains the current terms and conditions, which you can save or print out accordingly. 3.4 Alternatively, Knowunity Pro can be booked via an in-app purchase. Information on in-app purchases from Apple can be found here: https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT202023 and on in-app purchases in the Google Play Store here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1061913?hl=de. 3.5 For the term and termination, see Clause 11.

4. Right of withdrawal and expiry of the right of withdrawal

4.1 KNOWUNITY (free of charge): The complete cancellation policy can be found here. Please note: When concluding the free contract, the right of withdrawal expires immediately after successful registration, because we immediately grant access to Knowunity and enable its use, i.e. start providing our services (§ 356 para. 5 no. 1 BGB). 4.2 KNOWUNITY PRO (subject to a fee): The complete cancellation policy can be found here. Please note: When concluding the fee-based contract (Knowunity Pro), the right of withdrawal expires prematurely after you - knowing that the right of withdrawal has expired and with the consent of your parents or legal guardians - have expressly agreed that we make the fee-based offer directly available and that we do so. In our confirmation email, we will confirm that you - with the consent of your parents or legal guardians - have agreed to this and that you and your parents were aware that you had lost the right of withdrawal by giving your consent.

5. What you must and must not do

5.1 You must keep your access data (user name, password) secret and must not pass them on to others. If you have the feeling or know that others are accessing your account, please send us an e-mail to [email protected] as soon as possible. 5.2 You may only use the content available on Knowunity within the Knowunity platform and may not pass it on to others, publish it on the Internet or sell it to others. However, if you have booked Knowunity Pro, you may print out learning content for your personal use and/or export it as PDFs for your own use. 5.3 You may not upload, post or otherwise distribute the following content - regardless of the Knowunity area and regardless of the form (texts, media, etc.) - on Knowunity: 5.3.1 Viruses or other forms of programming code; 5.3.2 Pornographic, sexist, xenophobic, insulting, defamatory content, content that incites violence or threatens violence, content that oppresses minorities or incites hatred, or any other content that offends common decency; 5.3.3 Content that discriminates against others because of their origin, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, any illnesses or other characteristics or qualities; 5.3.4 Content that is intentionally misleading or untruthful; 5.3.5 copyrighted material or content that contains such material without being demonstrably authorised to do so; 5.3.6 Advertising material in any form, unless Knowunity has given its express prior consent in text form; 5.3.7 Other illegal content; 5.3.8 Content that is not related to school lessons and is therefore not relevant to learning (applies to Knows, flashcards and quizzes). 5.3.9 You must also always observe and comply with our Community Guidelines, which you can access here. 5.4 Never mention the names or other personal details of others (e.g. classmates or teachers) in your posts and comments, and you should also not publish your own real name or other personal details of yourself or other people. 5.5 StudyBots that you create may not recognisably reproduce the name, manner of speech or other characteristics of real people (whether prominent or not). They may also not be recognisably based on real people. You may also not provide your StudyBot with an avatar that reproduces real persons or copyrighted characters/figures or other legally protected content, whether in identical or modified but still recognisable form. 5.6 You may also not do the following: 5.6.1 Misuse your access to Knowunity for the purpose of initiating romantic or sexual relationships; 5.6.2 Unlawfully provide yourself or others with access to Knowunity and/or Knowunity Pro; 5.6.3 Any automated use of the platform and the content available there, for example through the use of scripts to create or retrieve content, is prohibited. This also applies to such non-commercial use. 5.7 Please note: You are responsible for the content uploaded or posted by you and you must always bear in mind that - in accordance with the statutory provisions - you must "take responsibility" for this content. 5.8 If you discover an infringement of sections 5.1 to 5.6 by other users, please inform us of this as soon as possible via [email protected]. 5.9 You are not allowed to have more than one account on our service. If we previously terminated your account, you are not allowed to create a new account unless you have our express written permission to create a new account.

6. Moderation of content

6.1 Knowunity is an informative platform on which content is uploaded and posted by other users. This information is intended to help you and pupils to expand their knowledge of school. However, it should not and cannot replace school and the lessons given by teachers.

6.2 You are not entitled to receive answers to questions you ask on Knowunity or to specific content. Our service consists in providing the platform and not in answering your questions, providing individual counselling or even improving your academic performance or achieving academic success. Such services are neither owed by us nor by other users or Knowunity.

6.3 Knowunity accepts no liability whatsoever for the accuracy, completeness and suitability of the information provided by other users and Knowern. Nor do the other users or Knowers assume any liability in this regard.

6.4 When moderating content, we endeavour to display content that is particularly relevant to you. Our algorithms take into account certain demographic data (e.g. grade level, type of school, problem subjects) and activities in the app (e.g. list of viewed content). The popularity of content is also taken into account when it is displayed. We measure the popularity of content based on the number of views, impressions, likes and the number of users who have saved the content in a folder. Your learning experience and progress should be optimised in this way.

6.5 At the same time, we ensure compliance with our Community Guidelines. Before publishing content, however, we do not check it for correctness/violation of laws or our Community Guidelines (see below for more details).

6.6 When you upload content publicly, the uploaded content first automatically passes through our algorithm. This takes into account the following factors: informative value of the title, references, academic relevance, spelling, legibility, completeness (this does not mean the complete coverage of a topic, but rather the fact that content has been deliberately broken up into several individual pieces of content in a user-unfriendly manner, which individually only provide very limited learning value or content is obviously incomplete), image quality, presence of personal data in the content, likelihood of plagiarism, copyright infringements and your previous user behaviour. Images are also automatically checked for pornographic content, content harmful to minors and violent content. Based on the algorithm result, the content is either accepted, rejected or additionally checked by our team. If you believe that a rejection is unjustified, you can appeal this via the app using an "appeal process" button and also provide reasons for the appeal. Our team will then review the rejection as soon as possible (again if necessary). If the review comes to the conclusion that the rejection was unjustified, the content will be accepted and published. You will also receive a message about this. If the rejection is upheld, you will be informed of this and the reasons why the content was rejected will be explained. In addition, the rejection of your content may have further consequences according to 7 (see below). If you believe that the rejection was unjustified, you can take legal action against this before the competent civil courts.

6.7 Users can report content, which will then be reviewed by our team to determine whether the requirements of sections 5.1 to 5.6 have been met or whether the qualitative factors mentioned under 6.6 speak against the learning value of the content and thus against publication. If the report leads to the removal of the content, you will be informed of this and you can contest the decision and also give reasons for the contestation. The decision will then be reviewed by our team as soon as possible. If the review comes to the conclusion that the removal of the content was unjustified, the content will be accepted and published. You will also receive a message about this. If the rejection is upheld, you will be informed of this and the reasons why the content was rejected will be explained. In addition, the removal of your content may have further consequences according to 7 (see below). If you believe that the rejection was unjustified, you can take legal action against this in the competent civil courts.

7. Consequences of infringements

7.1 If you violate 5.1 to 5.6, this may have the following consequences for you:

Removal of content created by you (consequence of lowest intensity)

temporary blocking of your account - it is still possible to use Knowunity, but you will not be able to post, upload or otherwise distribute any content - neither in the public area nor in private chats - for details see 7.2 (consequence of medium intensity)

Permanent deactivation of your account and cancellation of the contract without notice (consequence of highest intensity)

7.2 Whether your violation of 5.1. to 5.6. has consequences beyond the deletion of the content depends on whether you reach a certain number of penalty points as a result of one or more violations. The following behaviours will result in you receiving penalty points (see the Community Guidelines for more details on the behaviours listed below):

Not relevant to the school; spam and unwanted advertising; unwarranted reporting of content: You will receive 1 Penalty Point
Bullying and Harassment, Hateful Behaviour, Integrity and Authenticity, Dangerous Behaviour, Criminal Activity and Regulated Goods, Weapons and Ammunition, Violent and Graphic Content: You will receive 10 penalty points
Adult nudity and sexual activity, Safety of minors, Promotion of self-harm and suicide, Violent extremism, Commercial spam: You will receive 100 Penalty Points

Reaching the following number of points (Penalty Points) will have the following consequences for you:

5 Penalty Points will result in a 3-day ban.
10 penalty points lead to a suspension of 7 days.
20 penalty points lead to a ban of 10 days.
30 penalty points lead to a suspension of 15 days.
50 penalty points lead to a suspension of 30 days.
100 or more penalty points lead to a permanent ban.

If a number of points is reached or exceeded, the corresponding suspension will take place and the points that were required to reach the respective point threshold will be deducted from your points account at the end of the suspension. Example: You already have one penalty point and receive ten more penalty points. You will then be blocked for seven days. At the end of the suspension period, your account balance will be back to one penalty point.

Penalty points have no expiry date. You keep them in your account as long as they are not deducted from your account by exceeding a point threshold and the subsequent expiry of the ban.

If you receive further points during a ban, these will be added to your points balance before the ban expires and your further ban will be based on this points balance. Example: You receive 20 penalty points and are banned for ten days. Five days before the ten-day ban expires, you receive 30 points for another content. As your points account still has a score of 20 penalty points at this point, you reach the threshold of 50 points in total, for which you will be banned for an additional 30 days. You will then be banned for a total of 40 days.

If we recognise that you are using multiple accounts and one account is blocked, we reserve the right to block the other accounts as well.

7.3 As soon as Knowunity becomes aware of an infringement of 5.1 to 5.6 in the case of content that has already been published, the following procedure will be initiated:

Obviously illegal content will be removed immediately.

The person who posted the content will then be informed of the removal, stating the reasons for the removal.

If the content is not obviously illegal, the person who posted the content will be given three working days to respond. Knowunity will then decide whether to remove the content. The person who posted the content will be informed of the decision and the reasons for it.

If circumstances justify the temporary blocking or permanent deactivation of the account in accordance with 7.2, the person who posted the content will be warned in advance and informed of the underlying reasons. The person will be given three working days to respond. Knowunity will then decide whether to temporarily block or permanently deactivate the account.

The owner of the blocked/deactivated account can take legal action against Knowunity's decision before the competent civil courts.

8. Comment function and chat area

8.1 It is possible to comment on learning content. Here you can give feedback or ask questions. We also offer a chat area where you can exchange ideas with other users.

8.2 The conditions and rules in sections 5.1 to 5.6, including the Community Guidelines, which you can access here, apply to the comment function and the chat area.

8.3 In public chats, there are community moderators who ensure compliance with the conditions and rules in sections 5.1 to 5.6, including the Community Guidelines. Chat content from you that violates these conditions and rules can be deleted by the Community Moderators. In addition, Community Moderators may remove you from certain group chats if you have seriously or repeatedly violated the conditions and rules in sections 5.1 to 5.6, including the Community Guidelines. If you believe that the deletion of a message or removal from a chat is unjustified, you can challenge this and give reasons for the challenge. The decision will then be reviewed by our team as soon as possible (again if necessary). If the review comes to the conclusion that the decision was unjustified, the content will be accepted and published or your exclusion from the chat will be cancelled. You will also receive a message about this. If, on the other hand, the decision is upheld, you will be informed of this and the reasons will be explained. If you believe that the rejection of your challenge was unjustified, you can take legal action against this before the competent civil courts. Please note that your content posted in the chat may have further consequences under 7 (see above).

9. Advertising

Knowunity is entitled to display advertising information on the platform if you use the free version of Knowunity.

10. Contract period and termination

10.1 The contract for the free version of Knowunity is in principle concluded for an indefinite period. The contract can be terminated at any time via the user account by deleting the account. 10.2 A paid subscription to Knowunity Pro is for a fixed term, which is automatically renewed indefinitely until cancelled. You can cancel the subscription within the respective term at any time at the end of this contract term. When concluding the contract via the website, you can cancel the contract via the menu item "Cancel Knowunity Pro now". For bookings via in-app purchases, the cancellation takes place directly via the respective app store. Information on this can be found here: Apple Store: https://support.apple.com/de-de/guide/iphone/iph3dfd91de/ios Google Play Store: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7018481?hl=DE 10.3 By cancelling Knowunity Pro, you will lose the right to use the benefits of Knowunity Pro at the end of the current contract period in which you have cancelled and you will be downgraded to the free Knowunity membership. Should you also wish to cancel this, clause 10.1 applies. 10.4 You and Knowunity have the right to terminate a contract concluded with us at any time for good cause. For Knowunity, such a cause shall be deemed to exist in particular if you repeatedly or in a particularly serious manner violate clauses 5.1 - 5.6 or if due payments have not been made several times despite reminders. The regulations on the final account blocking under clause 7 remain unaffected by this.

11. Liability

11.1 We are liable for intent and gross negligence. Furthermore, we are liable for the negligent breach of obligations, the fulfilment of which makes the proper execution of the contract possible in the first place, the breach of which endangers the achievement of the purpose of the contract and on the observance of which you as a customer may regularly rely. In this case, however, we shall only be liable for the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. The same applies to breaches of duty by our vicarious agents. 11.2 The above exclusions of liability shall not apply in the event of injury to life, limb or health and also not insofar as we have fraudulently concealed a defect or have assumed a guarantee for the quality of the item. Liability under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected.

12. Amendment of the GTC

Knowunity shall be entitled to amend these GTC, provided that this appears necessary and the users are not disadvantaged thereby contrary to good faith. They may also be amended in response to new technical developments, changes in case law, the legal situation or for equivalent reasons. Users shall be notified in advance in text form of any amendments to the GTC. Changes that significantly disturb the contractual balance between the parties require the express consent of the users. Otherwise, they shall be deemed approved if the users do not object to them in text form within six weeks after receipt of the notification. Knowunity shall expressly draw attention to this and the consequences set out below in the notification of the changes. In case of an objection, Knowunity shall be entitled to terminate the contract with a notice period of two weeks. In the event of an objection to new GTC, Knowunity shall furthermore be entitled to an extraordinary right of termination, provided that Knowunity cannot reasonably be expected to continue the contract, taking into account its interests and the interests of the users.

13. Contractual language, applicable law and further notes

13.1 The contract is concluded in the German language. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply. In the event that you have your habitual residence in a member state of the EU or Switzerland, mandatory provisions there shall remain unaffected. 13.2 The European Union has established a platform for the out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes ("ODR Platform"), which can be accessed via the link http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. The platform serves as a contact point for the out-of-court settlement of disputes regarding contractual obligations arising from online contracts. In accordance with Section 36 of the Consumer Dispute Resolution Act, Knowunity points out that it is neither obligated nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

14. Severability clause

Should individual provisions of this contract be invalid or unenforceable or become invalid or unenforceable after conclusion of the contract, this shall not affect the validity of the remainder of the contract. The invalid or unenforceable provision shall be replaced by a valid and enforceable provision whose effects come as close as possible to the economic objective pursued by the contracting parties with the invalid or unenforceable provision.

CANCELLATION POLICY FOR THE FREE MEMBERSHIP

Cancellation policy

RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL

You have the right to cancel this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us (Knowunity GmbH, Julie-Wolfthorn-Straße 1, 10115 Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 52001583, E-Mail: [email protected]) by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by post or an e-mail) of your decision to withdraw from this contract. You can use the attached sample withdrawal form, which is not mandatory.

To comply with the withdrawal period, it is sufficient that you send the notification of the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the expiry of the withdrawal period.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOCATION

If you revoke this contract, we will reimburse you for all payments we have received from you, including delivery costs (with the exception of additional costs resulting from the fact that you have chosen a type of delivery other than the cheapest standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and no later than within fourteen days from the day on which we received the notification of your revocation of this contract. For this repayment, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no case will you be charged for this repayment.

EXPIRY OF THE RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL

The right of withdrawal shall expire in the case of contracts for the provision of digital content not on a tangible medium, where the consumer is not obliged to pay a price, when the entrepreneur has begun to perform the contract,

INFORMATION ABOUT THE MODEL WITHDRAWAL FORM

Sample cancellation form

(If you want to cancel the contract, please fill out this form and send it back).

To Knowunity GmbH, Julie-Wolfthorn-Straße 1, 10115 Berlin, e-mail: [email protected]:

I/we (*) hereby revoke the contract concluded by me/us (*) for the purchase of the following goods (*)/the provision of the following service (*)

Ordered on (*)/received on (*)

Name of the consumer(s)

Address of consumer(s)

Signature of the consumer(s) (only in case of notification on paper)

Date

(*) Delete where not applicable.

CANCELLATION POLICY FOR KNOWUNITY PRO

Cancellation policy

RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL

You have the right to cancel this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

To comply with the withdrawal period, it is sufficient that you send the notification of the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the expiry of the withdrawal period.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOCATION

EXPIRY OF THE RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL

The right of withdrawal shall expire in the case of contracts for the provision of digital content not on a tangible medium where the consumer is obliged to pay a price if

1) the entrepreneur has started the performance of the contract,

2) the consumer has expressly consented to the trader commencing performance of the contract before the expiry of the withdrawal period,

3) the consumer has confirmed that he is aware that his right of withdrawal expires upon commencement of performance of the contract as a result of his consent in accordance with Section 2, and

4) the Entrepreneur has provided the Consumer with a confirmation pursuant to Section 312f BGB.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE MODEL WITHDRAWAL FORM

Sample cancellation form

(If you want to cancel the contract, please fill out this form and send it back).

To Knowunity GmbH, Julie-Wolfthorn-Straße 1, 10115 Berlin, e-mail: [email protected]:

I/we (*) hereby revoke the contract concluded by me/us (*) for the purchase of the following goods (*)/the provision of the following service (*)

Ordered on (*)/received on (*)

Name of the consumer(s)

Address of consumer(s)

Signature of the consumer(s) (only in case of notification on paper)

Date

(*) Delete where not applicable.