Terms of Use

Last update: 01.07.2024

§ 1    Scope

  1. SEFE Energy GmbH (hereinafter referred to as the “SEFE Energy”) offers its customers the opportunity to use the SEFE Energy Customer Portal (hereinafter referred to as the “Portal”). These Terms of Use regulate the relationship between SEFE Energy as the operator of the Portal and CUSTOMER as the user of the Portal.
  2. The Portal is a web-based portal enabling CUSTOMER to obtain information regarding current invoices and recent consumption, energy-related topics and other aspects concerning the gas market. Subject to specific requirements, in the Transaction Area of the Portal CUSTOMER can purchase standard trading products and / or flat quantities and execute options, as described in § 2 (2) below.
  3. The use of the Portal is conditional upon CUSTOMER agreeing to these Terms of Use and the Data Protection Policy Regarding the Use of SEFE Energy’s Customer Portal. Changes must be made in writing to become effective. Any and all CUSTOMER terms that conflict with or deviate from these Terms of Use or the Data Protection Policy Regarding the Use of SEFE Energy’s Customer Portal will not become part of any contract, even if SEFE Energy does not expressly object to them. These Terms of Use apply only to companies, public sector corporations and special funds under public law as set out in § 310 of the Civil Code of Germany [Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB].


§ 2     Functions of the Portal, conditions for use

  1. SEFE Energy provides the use of the Portal at https://portal.sefe-energy.eu/en to CUSTOMER free of charge within the scope of these Terms of Use.
  2. In the Portal, CUSTOMER receives updated information regarding invoices, consumption, and other market information. In addition, in the Transaction Area of the Portal, CUSTOMER can
    a) purchase standard trading products (Portfolio Model) in compliance with the Framework Agreement (hereinafter referred to as “FA”), subject to specific requirements, and / or execute any of the options granted in the respective Individual Agreement (hereinafter referred to as “IA”);
    b) purchase flat quantities in compliance with the General Agreement of the European Federation of Energy Traders (hereinafter referred to as “EFET”) and/or execute any of the options granted in the respective Individual Contract (hereinafter referred to as “IC”);
    c) execute any of the options granted in the Special Conditions (hereinafter referred to as “SC”).

    Section 2 a) and c) are conditional upon such an express agreement within the existing contractual relationship between CUSTOMER and SEFE Energy or otherwise the conclusion of an Additional Agreement to the aforementioned.
  3. The use of the Portal services is conditional upon CUSTOMER entering into an agreement regarding the use of the Portal (hereinafter referred to as “User Contract”). The User Contract will come into effect when any of CUSTOMER’s users register in the Portal and accept these Terms of Use and the Data Protection Policy. These Terms of Use and the General Data Protection Rules can be viewed at any time at https://portal.sefe-energy.eu/en/datenschutz.
  4. All services offered by SEFE Energy are non-binding. SEFE Energy expressly reserves the right to discontinue the operation of the Portal including the Transaction Area in full or in part at any time within eight (8) weeks without notice and without providing any reasons. Any and all contractual relationships between SEFE Energy and CUSTOMER existing at the time of such discontinuation will remain unaffected thereby.


§3    User administration

  1. Setup of initial main user
    CUSTOMER will provide towards SEFE Energy the name of a natural person to act as the main user of the Portal by using the form "Access to SEFE Energy Customer Portal - Appointment of Main User" which is provided by SEFE Energy. The main user must be a staff member of CUSTOMER. To setup such main user, SEFE Energy will send individualized login data to such person named by the CUSTOMER.
  2. Setup of other users or other main users
    Main users will be able to approve other natural persons as other users or other main users in the Portal. Such other users may be staff members of CUSTOMER and / or third parties maintaining a contractual relationship with CUSTOMER regarding the management of contracts between SEFE Energy and CUSTOMER. CUSTOMER hereby declares that any and all third parties authorized to use the Portal are not employed or freelance staff members of any company, institution, association, or persons that are competitors of SEFE Energy. Other main users must be staff members of CUSTOMER. All other users or other main users authorized to use the Portal must declare adherence to the contractually agreed-upon confidentiality. All actions carried out in the Portal by main users or other users have effect for and against CUSTOMER.
  3. Registering and omission of a main user and/or other users and proof of authority
    When registering a main user and / or other users, the information provided as requested by SEFE Energy in this context must be true and complete. In case only one main user exist and this main user leaves CUSTOMER’s employ or transfers to another position, CUSTOMER will in a timely manner register in the Portal an other main user or nominate towards SEFE Energy the name of a new main user by using the form "Access to SEFE Energy Customer Portal - Appointment of Main User". If another user who is staff member of CUSTOMER leaves CUSTOMER’s employ or transfers to another position, one of the main users will change or delete the data pertaining to such user (and, if applicable, register a new other user). If another user deemed to be a third party as set out in (2) above, is not acting for CUSTOMER anymore, one of the main users will change or delete the data pertaining to such user as well (and, if applicable, register a new other user). Regardless of the provision of notification in this regard, these users’ rights to access and to use the Portal will end automatically. Where CUSTOMER typically purchases standard trading products and / or flat quantities or executes options, at the request of SEFE Energy, CUSTOMER will substantiate the respective main user´s or other user’s authorization to represent CUSTOMER by providing a power of attorney or an excerpt from the trade register.


§ 4     User relationship required to purchase standard trading products and / or flat quantities and to execute options in the Transaction Area of the Portal

  1. Subject to compliance with the conditions for use as set out in § 2 (2) and (3) above, CUSTOMER will be entitled to use the Transaction Area in accordance with this § 4.
  2. Purchasing standard trading products under the Framework Agreement and/or flat quantities under the EFET
    In addition to the communication channels specified in the Framework Agreement which can be used to request binding offers for standard trading products in the Portfolio Model by e-mail or telephone, CUSTOMER can send such requests to SEFE Energy through the Portal. In this case, all notifications made by SEFE Energy or by CUSTOMER in connection with such purchase(s) of standard trading products will be exclusively sent via the Portal. This rule does not apply in the case of § 5 (3) below. The form provided in the Portal will suffice for a legally effective conclusion of contract. In all other cases, the regulations regarding the purchase of standard trading products in the Portfolio Model as set out in the Framework Agreement and, if applicable, in the Additional Agreement will apply including, but not limited to, the conditions regarding the validity of requests to purchase standard trading products in the Portfolio Model. If in doubt, the regulations set out in the Framework Agreement and in the Additional Agreement will prevail over the regulations set out in these Terms of Use.     The regulations in this § 4 (2) apply accordingly to the EFET.
  3. Executing options (IA, IC, SC)
    In addition to the communication channels specified in the IA or the SC regarding the execution of contractually agreed-upon options (e.g., price fixing or fixing tranches) by e-mail or fax, CUSTOMER has the opportunity to send legally binding declarations of intent and / or requests to SEFE Energy through the Portal. In this case, all notifications made by SEFE Energy or by CUSTOMER in connection with the execution of options will be sent via the Portal exclusively. This rule does not apply in the case of § 5 (3) below. The form provided in the Portal will suffice for any execution of options. In all other cases, the regulations regarding the execution of options as set out in the SC and / or the IA will apply including, but not limited to, the conditions regarding the validity of declarations of intent and / or requests. If in doubt, the regulations set out in the SC and in the IA will prevail over the regulations set out in these Terms of Use.     The regulations in this § 4 (3) apply accordingly to the EFET.


§ 5    Scope of services

  1. To use the Portal and its functions, CUSTOMER will be required to deploy state-of-the-art hardware and software. The use of the Portal and its functions is subject to technical availability at SEFE Energy. SEFE Energy undertakes to ensure the Portal has a 98.5% level of availability, not including regular maintenance intervals of 2 hours per month. SEFE Energy will strive to carry out maintenance work in the Portal outside of regular business hours and will announce such work in a timely manner. For additional information on software supported by SEFE Energy, CUSTOMER can refer to the Help Section in the Portal.
  2. In the event unforeseen maintenance work on the systems and/or servers used by SEFE Energy is necessary to provide the agreed-upon services or in the event of unforeseen technical failure, SEFE Energy is entitled to limit the availability of the Portal temporarily. In this case, CUSTOMER will not be entitled to assert any claims with regard to the use of the Portal. Taking into consideration reasonable economical aspects, SEFE Energy will strive to restore the availability of the Portal promptly. § 8 (Liability) below will remain unaffected by this provision.
  3. For the duration of any interruption to the provision of services as set out in § 5 (1) and (2) above, CUSTOMER will not be able to use the functions specified in § 2 (2) above. In particular, no notifications can be sent or received by SEFE Energy via the Portal in this case.
    Any and all deadlines relating to SEFE Energy’s transmission of offers in connection with the purchase of standard trading products and the execution of options pursuant to § 4 above will continue to apply. Offers will not be extended by the length of time of the duration of any Portal downtime. Rather, to ensure binding legal effect, CUSTOMER is required to use the communication channels (e-mail or fax) agreed upon in the Framework Agreement, the SC and / or the IA.
  4. SEFE Energy will not be responsible for any delay in the provision of services due to an act of God and / or incidents which make it significantly difficult or impossible for SEFE Energy to provide the agreed-upon services through no fault of its own – including strikes, lockouts, legal provisions, measures implemented by any authorities, downtime of other operators’ communication networks and gateways, breakdowns, natural disasters, and war – even if deadlines or dates have been agreed upon in a binding manner. Such delays entitle SEFE Energy to cease provision of the Portal for the duration of any such incident plus a reasonable start-up time thereafter. Where possible and reasonable, SEFE Energy will inform CUSTOMER promptly of any unavailability, the reasons therefor, and the potential duration of the disruption to services.
  5. Even exercising utmost care, SEFE Energy cannot ensure that the data and information retrievable from the Portal is accurate in its entirety. Errors in transmission and / or manual entries of numbers, digits, and other information can cause the information provided in the Portal to be incorrect. Therefore, CUSTOMER must review and verify all information obtained. 


§ 6     CUSTOMER’s obligations

  1. CUSTOMER undertakes to use the services provided by SEFE Energy properly and to comply with the acknowledged principles of data security. In addition, CUSTOMER undertakes not to use the Portal in an improper manner and instead to use the Portal exclusively in accordance with the applicable national and international laws and regulations including, but not limited to, undertaking
    • not to infringe upon any third-party rights including personal, copyright, brand, and name rights or any other third-party industrial property rights;
    • not to post or offer any information containing illegal or immoral contents including, but not limited to, information that incites racial hatred, glorifies or trivializes war or violence, is sexually offensive or pornographic, or is likely in any way to endanger children or youth morally or to impede their wellbeing, and not to make reference to sites with such contents, for example, by posting hyperlinks.
  2. In connection with the use of the Portal, CUSTOMER will
    • maintain the confidentiality of any and all passwords and, in case of loss or suspected abuse of login data by unauthorized third parties, will change such login data promptly and will so notify SEFE Energy;
    • check CUSTOMER’s account regularly for new notifications;
    • end every use of the Portal properly (will always log out);
    • not forward any information or data retrieved from the Portal to any third parties outside of the Portal for business purposes; not download, buffer, make available to the public and / or use for CUSTOMER’s own purposes any significant data from the Portal using crawler software or in any other way, and will not repeatedly and systematically download, buffer, make available to the public and/or use for CUSTOMER’s own purposes any non-significant data from the Portal if and when such actions do or could conflict with the regular evaluation of the data or do or could adversely affect SEFE Energy’s justified interests in any unreasonable manner.


§ 7     Blocking

  1. In the event concrete evidence indicates that CUSTOMER is in violation of legal provisions, third-party rights, or its obligations as set out in existing contracts or in these Terms of Use including, but not limited to, those set out in § 3 (2) and § 6 above, SEFE Energy can prohibit CUSTOMER from using the Portal temporarily, or permanently if such violations or breaches of rights or obligations do not cease. If this is the case, SEFE Energy expressly reserves the right to assert further claims vis-à-vis CUSTOMER.
  2. SEFE Energy will take into consideration CUSTOMER’s justified interests, in particular, if evidence indicates that such violation was not caused by CUSTOMER’s error or omission.
  3. Furthermore, SEFE Energy is entitled to temporarily block CUSTOMER’s access to the Portal if and when CUSTOMER does not purchase any standard trading products / flat quantities or execute any options for a period of twelve or more months. SEFE Energy will give at least two-week’s notice of such blockage.
  4. CUSTOMER can be blocked permanently from using the Portal in the event of a substantive violation of material obligations as set out in § 1 above, or if CUSTOMER provides incorrect contact information in violation of § 3 (1) above, enables unauthorized third parties to access the Portal, or repeatedly infringes upon this § 6.


§ 8     Liability

  1. SEFE Energy is only liable for the breach of contractual duties if it is responsible for the breach. SEFE Energy is responsible for willful misconduct [Vorsatz] and gross negligence [grobe Fahrlässigkeit] also on behalf of its legal respresentatives [gesetzliche Vertreter] and vicarious agents [Erfüllungsgehilfen].
  2. For slight negligence [leichte Fahrlässigkeit], SEFE Energy only assumes liability for injury to life, limb and health as well as damage that is based on the breach of essential contractual duties [wesentliche Vertragspflichten]. Essential contractual duties are those that protect CUSTOMER´s legal position essential to the contract, which the contract due to its content and purpose must grant it. Other essential contractual duties are those that must be fulfilled in order to enable proper implementation of the contract in the first place and which the CUSTOMER generally relies or can rely on being adhered to.
  3. In the event of a breach of essential duties that is not based on willful misconduct or gross negligence and does not result in injury to life, limb and health, liability for SEFE Energy is limited to the damage that SEFE Energy foresaw as a possible consequence of a breach of contract when concluding the respective contract or should have foreseen taking into consideration the circumstances it knew or should have known about.
  4. SEFE Energy is not liable for data or information uploaded to, saved in, downloaded from or otherwise provided through the Portal by CUSTOMER or third parties including for the completeness, accuracy, up-to-dateness or freedom from third-party rights of such data or information or for the fact that CUSTOMER or third parties act in compliance with the law when uploading such data or information to, saving it in, or downloading it from the Portal. In addition, SEFE Energy is not liable for damages caused by the incorrect use of the system.
  5. SEFE Energy provides the Portal free of charge in the scope specified in § 5 above. Vis-à-vis CUSTOMER, SEFE Energy is not liable for damages resulting from the unavailability of the Portal if and when the level of availability set out in § 5 (1) above has been met. Furthermore, SEFE Energy is not liable for notifications relevant to contracts being sent or received by SEFE Energy or CUSTOMER via the Portal in a proper and timely manner, unless SEFE Energy has confirmed receipt of CUSTOMER’s notifications and / or CUSTOMER did receive such notification sent by SEFE Energy. If CUSTOMER does not receive any such notification, CUSTOMER undertakes to use any of the alternative communication channels to send notifications.
  6. Claims from strict liability from product liability remain unaffected by the aforementioned provisions.


§ 9     Term, termination

The Agreement Regarding the Use of the Portal will run for an unlimited period of time. CUSTOMER and SEFE Energy can terminate the Agreement Regarding the Use of the Portal with one-month’s notice before the end of any month by sending a notification through the Portal to portal-support@sefe-energy.de. With coming into effect of the termination, CUSTOMER’s right to use the Portal ends. All Individual Agreements regarding the supply of natural gas entered into with legal effect by CUSTOMER through the Portal up until the right to use the Portal ends will remain unaffected by the termination of the Agreement Regarding the Use of the Portal.


§ 10     Changes to these Terms of Use

  1. SEFE Energy reserves the right to change and / or amend these Terms of Use and undertakes to notify CUSTOMER four (4) weeks in advance of any and all such changes and / or amendments. Upon expiration of such deadline, CUSTOMER’s users must accept the changed / amended Terms of Use before they can use the Portal again.
  2. The contract version agreed upon at the time of the signing of the contract and the corresponding execution of options will apply to the purchase of standard trading products and the execution of options, respectively.


§ 11     Venue, applicable law

  1. SEFE Energy and CUSTOMER will take all necessary steps to settle any disputes arising in connection with this Agreement amicably. If, contrary to expectations, this should not succeed, all disputes arising in connection with this Agreement l or about its validity shall be finally settled in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the German Institution for Arbitration [Schiedsordnung der Deutschen Institution für Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit e.V., DIS] without recourse to the ordinary courts of law.
  2. The number of arbitrators is three (3), one of which will hold the chair. The place of the arbitration proceedings is Kassel, Germany. The language of the arbitration proceedings is English.
  3. All material legal relationships between SEFE Energy and CUSTOMER are subject exclusively to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods dated 11 April 1980 (CISG) and the Private International Law of Germany do not apply.


§ 12     Miscellaneous

  1. CUSTOMER can assign rights and obligations from any contracts entered into with SEFE Energy only with SEFE Energy’s prior written consent.
  2. Should one or more provisions of these Terms of Use be or become invalid and / or unenforceable, this will not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use nor the existence and continuation. SEFE Energy and CUSTOMER undertake to replace any invalid and / or unenforceable provision with a new valid or enforceable provision that comes as close as possible to it in terms of economic success intended by the invalid and / or unenforceable provision and comes into effect from the time the provision becomes invalid and / or unenforceable.