The Geschäftsbedingungen der DATEV eG are the master terms for DATEV’s relationships with its members and with the companies that are clients of members. The current version is dated 2025-01-01 and has three parts: an Allgemeiner Teil (general part, Ziffern 1 to 25), Besondere Bedingungen für Software und DATEV-Cloud-Lösungen (special terms for software and cloud solutions, Ziffern 1 to 5), and Besondere Bedingungen Beratung, Projekte, Seminare und Dienstleistungen for consulting and training.[1] The special terms prevail over the general part where they differ.[1] The price list points to this document for the use of software and cloud solutions and for payment terms.[5] DATEV publishes the terms on one page that also links English, Polish and Austrian versions and several product-specific terms.[6]
Editions
The terms exist in versions rather than editions. The page that lists them shows the 2025 version for DATEV eG, an older 2018 version, and a separate version for DATEV in Austria.[6] Product-specific terms modify the general documents for single products. Examples in the retrieved set are the terms for DATEV Mandantendialog Jahresabschluss, which is free “bis auf Weiteres” (until further notice) with DATEV reserving the right to charge later and a three-month notice period for DATEV,[4] and the terms for DATEV Personal Benchmark online, which remove the minimum term.[3] Both refer to Ziffern of an earlier title of the special terms, “Besondere Bedingungen Programme, Datenbanken, Cloud-Anwendungen und Rechenzentrumsleistungen”; the numbering matches the notice period (5.3) and minimum term (5.4) in the 2025 special terms, which is an inference from the numbers and not a statement in the documents.[1][3][4]
Metrics
The terms do not define a licence metric themselves. Ziffer 2.5 states that the licensing and pricing variants for a product, and the pricing anchor points, follow from the order, the price list and the service description.[1] The terms recognise two limits that a metric can impose: a maximum number of simultaneous accesses (the use right is limited to the maximum agreed at the time) and use by named natural persons only (limited to those named at the time, who the customer must administer itself through DATEV’s applications).[1] Concrete metrics are in DATEV licence types. The scope of products and services is set by the service description valid at contract conclusion.[1]
Counting / floors
Declaring use. Before use begins, the customer tells DATEV the intended scope of use in writing, in text form or through the electronic order routes. On request it gives information on the use of the products, and changes that affect the basis of licensing must be reported without delay.[1]
Who may use. Members use products within their professional activity, including in client companies when the member opens use as part of its mandate (Leistungsverbund) and points the client to DATEV’s rights. Clients use products only for their own company; use in affiliated companies needs DATEV’s prior consent unless the service description allows it. A connection of clients to a firm’s systems to share firm licences is allowed only under licence rules DATEV sets in the individual case.[1] Services may not be passed on to third parties, and shared use of a product with third parties needs prior consent. Products may be operated only by natural persons, so automated access or interface-based exchange needs prior consent.[1]
Term and notice. Notice must be in writing or text form. Products with annual fee intervals can be cancelled to year end, other services to month end. The notice period is one month for the customer and twelve months for DATEV unless the service description says otherwise, and for monthly-fee products the first termination is possible to the end of twelve months after contract conclusion.[1] When a termination takes effect, access is blocked. The use right of a member also lapses with the membership, and locally installed products must be uninstalled.[1]
Price changes. Under Ziffer 8 the price list valid at contract conclusion applies. Running monthly, annual or usage-based prices rise by 3 percent on 1 January each year (“um 3%”). DATEV may go beyond that when the German consumer price index published by the Statistisches Bundesamt has risen more than that step since the last adjustment, and where third-party products are passed on at the vendor’s end-customer prices, DATEV may follow the vendor’s price change instead. Increases under the latter two routes are announced at least two months ahead and the customer may cancel the affected service within one month of the announcement.[1] A supplementary clause for Fachmodule allows one market-based adjustment per year, no earlier than twelve months after the last one on the affected service, again with two months’ notice, a one-month right to cancel and a one-month notice period for DATEV.[2] The price list adds that, from 2027, items priced on a running basis rise by 3 percent each year and that exempt items are footnoted.[5]
Payment. Invoices are due within 15 days of the invoice date without deduction, objections must be raised in writing or text form with reasons within six weeks of receipt or the invoice counts as accepted, and set-off is limited to undisputed or legally established claims.[1] On default DATEV may refuse not-yet-performed services and charge reminder fees.[1]
Virtualization & partitioning
The terms contain no virtualization or partitioning provision. The only technical-environment clauses are DATEV’s right to take reasonable technical protection measures against non-contractual use, provided contractual use is not materially impaired, and the customer’s duty to keep its IT systems maintained and protected.[1]
Cloud / BYOL
For cloud solutions use is by remote access only. Access rights, media, user IDs and personalised access hardware may not be passed to third parties, and DATEV may block accesses when it learns of abusive or unlawful use.[1] DATEV may use subcontractors; where a subcontractor that is also a further processor is introduced as part of a service change, the customer has a right to object under Art. 28(2) GDPR, and DATEV reserves a right to terminate the affected contract without notice for cause.[1] DATEV may change contracted services in listed cases, for example because third-party products are no longer available, legal requirements change, or maintaining a service is out of proportion to the number of users. Changes are announced at least two months before they take effect, and the customer can cancel the affected service within one month.[1] Hosting under DATEVasp has its own contract, which refers back to these terms for everything it does not regulate.[7]
Programs
- DATEV eG membership: client contracts depend on a mandate with a member and end one year after the mandate ends or the member’s consent is withdrawn.[1]
- Leistungsverbund and client connection: member use extended to clients with the safeguards above.[1]
- Annual 3 percent price increase and Fachmodule price adjustment clause: the escalation rules.[1][2]
- Mandantendialog Jahresabschluss free use: product-specific free use with a three-month DATEV notice period.[4]
Audits, remedies and liability
The terms give DATEV information rights but no inspection right. A culpable breach of the rules on permitted use (Ziffer 6.1) or on passing services to third parties (Ziffer 6.2) triggers a contractual penalty of EUR 10,000 per case; the penalty is a minimum if damages are also owed, the customer may prove lower damage, and DATEV may claim more and, in a serious case, refuse its services.[1] The customer is liable for rights violations by third parties it gives access to unless it proves it is not responsible, and after a warning DATEV may terminate without notice for breach of the copyright and decompilation rules.[1] Programs and databases may not be translated or converted from object code to source code without DATEV’s written consent, subject to section 69e of the German Copyright Act.[1]
On warranty, the customer has no defect claim if it does not use the current version of a program and the defect results from that; defect claims in purchase and work contracts expire after one year. If a third party claims that a service infringes its rights, DATEV chooses between obtaining a right of use and making the service free of third-party rights.[1] DATEV is liable for intent and gross negligence. For slight negligence it is liable only for breach of essential contract duties and for injury to life, body or health, and for essential duties it is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. Liability for data loss is limited to the cost of restoring data from proper backups made by the customer, and uninterrupted availability is not owed.[1]
Governing law and scope
The terms apply only to entrepreneurs acting in their trade or profession and to public-law bodies.[1] Exclusive jurisdiction is Nuremberg (for non-merchants only where no domestic venue exists), and German law applies to the exclusion of the UN Sales Convention. Exports of supplied software may need authorisation under German foreign-trade law, including temporary carriage such as on a laptop, and the customer is responsible for compliance.[1]
Out of scope
The terms of DATEV Austria, the English and Polish convenience versions, the processing agreement for personal data (Auftragsverarbeitung), the Satzung and the Besondere Bedingungen for consulting, projects and seminars are not analysed here beyond the points noted. The documents contain no court decisions on these terms, and none is cited.