Earlyswell

Terms and Conditions

Convenience translation. Only the German version is legally binding: Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen

Version 1 of 29 September 2026. The version applicable at the time of booking is authoritative; its version number is stated in the booking confirmation. We will send earlier versions on request.

Provider: Atlaxis Digital Services GmbH, Hintere Grabenstraße 25, 72070 Tübingen Amtsgericht Stuttgart (Local Court of Stuttgart), HRB 806985 · Managing Director: Emil Breustedt · [email protected] (hereinafter “Atlaxis” or “we”)

1. To whom these terms apply

1.1 Earlyswell is aimed exclusively at entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 BGB, at legal persons under public law and at special funds under public law (together, the “Customer”). Consumers cannot book Earlyswell.

1.2 Before each booking, the Customer expressly confirms that it is booking as an entrepreneur or for a legal person under public law and that it uses Earlyswell for its commercial, independent professional or official activity. We store this confirmation together with the time. We may request proof of this, for example a VAT identification number or an extract from the register.

1.3 Only these terms apply. Deviating terms of the Customer do not apply, even if we do not expressly object to them. Individual agreements in text form take precedence. Public-sector contracting authorities may, on request, agree on the EVB-IT Cloud in the “Organisation” plan.

2. What Earlyswell is and what it is not

2.1 Earlyswell is software that is used via the internet (software as a service). It analyses publicly accessible sources, such as documents and procedures of the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the state parliaments and EU legislation, funding calls, research data (e.g. OpenAlex), online media and public posts on social networks (Bluesky). From these, it shows developments and trends relating to topics. Every figure is linked to its source.

2.2 Which features, limits (e.g. number of custom topics and members) and sources belong to a plan is set out in the Service Description (earlyswell.com/rechtliches/en/leistungsbeschreibung.html) in the version applicable at the time of booking. We state the version number in the booking confirmation.

2.3 Earlyswell is a research tool and not advice. We do not provide legal, tax, investment or other professional advice. Analyses, summaries and trend information are indications and do not replace the Customer’s own review.

2.3a Information on exchange-traded funds is not investment advice. For some topics, Earlyswell names funds (ETFs) whose index has the topic as its subject matter or indirectly concerns it — with name, ISIN, provider, index and source. This is factual information for placing a topic in context, not a recommendation, not an offer and not an invitation to buy or sell. Earlyswell does not show prices, does not rate the funds and receives no remuneration from providers. Only the provider’s documents (key information document, prospectus) are authoritative.

2.4 The original document is always authoritative. Summaries, counts and indicators in Earlyswell may contain errors, for example due to faulty source data or the automatic, rule-based analysis. Earlyswell does not use third-party AI models. Before making any decision, the Customer should check the linked source.

2.5 We do not guarantee completeness or timeliness. Sources may be missing, appear late, or be changed or discontinued by their operators. We may add, replace or remove sources, provided that the booked plan is essentially preserved.

3. Conclusion of contract and trial

3.1 The presentation of the plans on the website does not yet constitute a binding offer. By booking a plan, the Customer submits an offer. The contract is concluded upon payment confirmation and activation of the plan; both usually take place immediately after booking.

3.2 Trial: New customers can test Earlyswell free of charge for 14 days. No payment details are required for this. The trial ends automatically and costs nothing. A paid contract only comes into existence if the Customer actively books a plan during or after the trial.

3.3 After the end of the trial, the account remains read-only for a further 30 days. After that, we delete the data of the trial if no plan has been booked. We send a reminder by email one week beforehand.

3.4 As a rule, each customer receives only one trial. We may refuse the trial or end it early without giving reasons, for example if misuse is suspected.

4. Account, organisation and roles

4.1 The Customer uses Earlyswell via an organisation account. It invites members and assigns roles (e.g. administration, member). The number of members depends on the booked plan.

4.2 Members act on behalf of the Customer. The Customer is responsible for who has access and revokes access for persons who have left.

5. Term and termination

5.1 When booking, the Customer chooses monthly or annual billing.

5.2 Monthly: The contract runs for one month and is extended by a further month in each case. The Customer may terminate at any time with effect from the end of the current billing month.

5.3 Annual: The contract has an initial term of twelve months, which is paid in advance. It then continues for an indefinite period, is billed monthly at the respective monthly price and may be terminated at any time with effect from the end of a calendar month. Termination with effect from the end of the initial term is possible up to its last day. We send a reminder by email 30 days before the end of the initial term.

5.4 We may terminate with ordinary notice of three months; in the case of annual billing, at the earliest with effect from the end of the initial term.

5.5 The Customer may terminate in the account or in text form (e.g. email to [email protected]). The right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected.

5.6 Change of plan: A change to a larger plan takes effect immediately. The difference for the current period is charged pro rata. A change to a smaller plan takes effect from the next billing period. If topics or members then exceed the limits of the smaller plan, the Customer must reduce them beforehand. Otherwise the excess topics are paused: those chosen by the Customer or, if no choice is made, those created most recently. Paused topics are retained and are resumed after a change to a larger plan.

6. Prices and payment

6.1 The prices on the website at the time of booking apply. All prices are net prices plus statutory VAT (currently 19%).

6.2 The fee is due in advance for the respective billing period, i.e. monthly or annually.

6.3 Payment is processed via the payment service provider Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.). The Customer chooses one of the payment methods offered there, such as credit card or SEPA direct debit. Customers receive invoices electronically. The period for advance notice of SEPA direct debits (pre-notification) is one day. Payment on invoice is possible in the “Organisation” plan.

6.4 For customers from other EU Member States with a valid VAT identification number, the reverse-charge procedure may apply. The Customer is responsible for ensuring that its details are correct.

7. Default in payment

7.1 If a payment fails, we inform the Customer and try again. The Customer bears the costs of a returned direct debit for which it is responsible.

7.2 If the Customer is in default for more than 14 days and has not paid despite a reminder, we set the account to read-only. The Customer can then see its topics and data but can no longer change anything. New analyses and reports are no longer generated. The payment obligation remains in place. As soon as the Customer has paid, we restore full access without undue delay.

7.3 Our right to default interest and to the lump sum for default under § 288 BGB remains unaffected. If the Customer is in default with more than two monthly fees, we may terminate extraordinarily.

8. Availability and maintenance

8.1 Earlyswell is available at least 98% of the time on a monthly average; announced maintenance (clause 8.2) and disruptions under clause 8.3 are excluded. Higher availability applies only if expressly agreed (e.g. in the Organisation plan).

8.2 Maintenance: Where possible, we announce planned maintenance in advance and schedule it at low-traffic times (working days 8 pm–6 am or at weekends). We may carry out urgent security maintenance without notice.

8.3 Disruptions for which we are not responsible do not count as downtime, in particular outages or changes of the analysed sources (e.g. interfaces of the Bundestag or of the GDELT Project), disruptions of the internet or force majeure.

9. Content, sources and rights of use

9.1 The analysed content does not belong to us. It is subject to the licences or terms of use of the respective sources. For example:

9.2 Rights of the Customer: For the term of the contract, the Customer receives the simple, non-transferable right to use Earlyswell and the analyses shown in it for its own purposes. This includes use by its members, its employees and in its internal work.

9.3 The Customer may use exports and reports (e.g. CSV, PDF, weekly report) internally and incorporate them into its own work results, for example into position papers or presentations, if it names the source; source references in exports and reports must not be removed. Passing on individual analyses to a client within the scope of a specific engagement is permitted; regular or systematic passing on to third parties, in particular as a newsletter or information service, only under a separate agreement (e.g. in the Organisation plan). The Customer may not sell exports.

9.4 The Customer’s own content (topics, search terms, notes) remains with the Customer. It grants us only the rights we need to provide the service. We do not use the Customer’s topics and search terms for any other purposes, not even in anonymised form — except with its express consent. We may use technical usage statistics without reference to topics (e.g. number of page views) to improve Earlyswell.

9.5 All rights to the software, the design and the database of Earlyswell lie with Atlaxis.

10. Obligations of the Customer

10.1 The Customer keeps access credentials secret and informs us without undue delay if it suspects misuse. An access belongs to one person. Several persons may not share an access.

10.2 The Customer may not use Earlyswell improperly. In particular, it may not:

10.3 If the Customer breaches these obligations, we may temporarily block access where this is appropriate. In the event of serious breaches, we may terminate extraordinarily. The Customer indemnifies us against claims of third parties that are based on use in breach of contract for which the Customer is responsible, in particular on impermissible passing on of exports.

11. Defects

11.1 We remedy defects within a reasonable time after the Customer has reported them. The Customer reports defects in text form and as precisely as possible.

11.2 Strict liability (irrespective of fault) for defects that already existed at the time the contract was concluded (§ 536a(1), first alternative, BGB) is excluded.

11.3 Deviations that are due to the sources (see clauses 2.4 and 2.5) are not defects of Earlyswell.

12. Liability

12.1 We are liable without limitation in the event of intent and gross negligence, in the event of injury to life, body or health, under the Produkthaftungsgesetz (German Product Liability Act) and insofar as we have given a guarantee.

12.2 In the event of slight negligence, we are liable only if we breach a material contractual obligation. This is an obligation whose fulfilment makes the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment the Customer may regularly rely (cardinal obligation). Liability is then limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract.

12.3 Otherwise, liability for slight negligence is excluded.

12.4 Maximum amount: In the cases of clause 12.2, liability is limited to €10,000 per claim.

12.5 We are not liable for decisions that the Customer makes on the basis of Earlyswell insofar as the damage is due to the Customer not having checked the original source (clauses 2.3 and 2.4). Clause 12.1 remains unaffected.

12.6 For loss of data, we are liable only up to the amount of the costs that would have been incurred for restoration had data been backed up properly.

12.7 These rules also apply to our employees, representatives and vicarious agents.

13. Data protection

13.1 How we process personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy datenschutz.html. For contract and invoice data, we are ourselves the controller. We process this data in order to perform the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and on account of statutory obligations.

13.2 The analysed public sources may contain personal data, for example names of members of parliament, authors of scientific papers or authors of public posts. We process this data under our own responsibility, not on behalf of the Customer.

13.3 Processing on behalf: For the data that the Customer enters — invited members, topics, search terms, notes — the Customer determines the purposes; we process it on its behalf. The data processing agreement (Annex 1, earlyswell.com/rechtliches/en/avv.html) applies to this and is concluded upon booking or upon the start of the trial. Sub-processors: Cloudflare, Inc. (delivery, USA, EU Standard Contractual Clauses) and Proton AG (email, Switzerland, adequacy decision). Hosting takes place on Atlaxis’s own server in Germany; backups are kept on Atlaxis’s own storage devices. Stripe is independently responsible for payment processing.

14. Changes to these terms and to the prices

14.1 We may change these terms and the prices with effect for the future if there is an objective reason for doing so, such as increased costs (e.g. for sources, hosting or payment processing), new features, a change in the legal situation or in case law. A price increase is possible no earlier than 12 months after the start of the contract or after the last increase.

14.2 We announce every change at least 6 weeks before it takes effect in text form (e.g. by email to the account administrators) and clearly highlight the changes.

14.3 Special right of termination: If the Customer does not agree, it may terminate the contract, up until the change takes effect, with effect from that date. We refund pro rata any fees already paid for the period thereafter. If the Customer does not terminate, the change applies from the announced date. We point this out specifically in the announcement.

14.4 We may make changes that are solely to the Customer’s benefit or purely editorial without announcement.

14.5 We do not change the scope of services by way of this clause 14; for this, clause 2.5 alone applies (the booked plan is essentially preserved).

15. End of contract, export and deletion

15.1 Until the end of the contract, the Customer can export its topics and analyses within the scope of its plan.

15.2 After the end of the contract, the account remains in read-only access for 30 days so that the Customer can export data. After that, we delete the Customer’s data, unless statutory retention obligations exist (e.g. for invoices). We send a reminder by email one week beforehand. Backup copies are overwritten in the normal rotation cycle after eight weeks at the latest.

15.3 On request, we delete earlier and confirm the deletion in text form.

16. Confidentiality

Both parties treat non-public information of the other party as confidential, including after the end of the contract. The Customer’s topics and search terms are deemed confidential because they allow conclusions to be drawn about its strategy.

17. References

We name the Customer’s name or logo as a reference only with its separate consent (setting in the account).

18. Final provisions

18.1 German law applies, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

18.2 The place of jurisdiction is Tübingen if the Customer is a merchant, a legal person under public law or a special fund under public law, or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany. We may also sue the Customer at its general place of jurisdiction.

18.3 Declarations relating to the contract must be made in text form (e.g. email), unless these terms provide otherwise.

18.4 If a provision is invalid, the remaining provisions remain valid. The statutory provision then applies.