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Terms
of Use

1. Agreement

These Terms of Use apply to contracts you conclude with me for SmarterGerman services. SmarterGerman is available at smartergerman.com, learn.smartergerman.com and courses.smartergerman.com. For consumers habitually resident in the EU and for businesses, these terms are governed by German law; as a consumer habitually resident in the EU you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer law of that country. For consumers habitually resident outside the EU, the law of the country of their habitual residence applies. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, purchase, or use SmarterGerman, including the conversation practice tool. By using the service you confirm that you are 18 or older.

2. Services

SmarterGerman provides online German language courses, practice tools, and study consulting services. Courses run in my learn app at learn.smartergerman.com and, for older enrolments, on Teachable. Purchases made through Teachable's checkout are also subject to Teachable's terms.

AI tools. My AI tools and the AI credits included in memberships are a voluntary extra and not part of the paid membership; there is no legal entitlement to them. I may change their scope, the number of included credits or their availability at any time. Unused included credits expire at the end of each calendar month, Berlin time, and cannot be redeemed for cash. Only the AI top-up described in section 8 is a separate paid contract.

3. Membership & Access

All memberships grant personal, non-transferable access to course content. You may not share your login credentials, redistribute course content, record lessons, or use course material for any purpose beyond your own personal learning. If SmarterGerman detects account sharing or repeated trial sign-ups as described in section 4, it will first send a warning by email with a reasonable period to stop. If the breach continues after that period, SmarterGerman may terminate the affected access for good cause. Any refund due under applicable law is reduced by the damage the breach caused, such as payment fees that cannot be recovered.

4. Free Trial

The monthly and yearly plans, and the 2-year plan billed through Stripe, start with a 7-day free trial; a payment method is required. If you cancel before the trial ends, nothing is charged. Otherwise the trial becomes a paid subscription when it ends, and the monthly price or the price for the first 12 or 24 months is charged in advance. The trial end, the date and the amount of the first payment are shown before you order. Plans paid once have no free trial. The free trial is limited to one per person. This limit applies across all trial-eligible products (e.g. All Courses, Bundle, Consulting): starting a trial on one product and then a trial on another to obtain additional free access is not permitted. Repeated sign-ups using additional accounts, alternative email addresses, or different payment methods are also not permitted; section 3 applies. SmarterGerman reserves the right to verify identity and to refuse further free trials to anyone who has already used one. Social Discount includes a 7-day free trial.

5. Payments & Billing

Memberships are billed in advance. Monthly and yearly plans, and the 2-year plan billed through Stripe, are subscriptions as described in section 7. The 2-year plan bought through Teachable is a single payment for 24 months of access. The 3-year plan is no longer sold; existing 3-year plans keep the terms they were bought under. All prices include VAT where applicable. Payments are processed by Stripe or Teachable. I accept major credit cards, PayPal and the other payment methods shown at checkout.

6. EU Right of Withdrawal & Immediate Access

Upon purchasing a digital course, you expressly request immediate access to the content. By doing so, you acknowledge that your statutory 14-day right of withdrawal expires upon commencement of the service, in accordance with EU Directive 2011/83/EU and German BGB §356(6). If you have not yet started a course, you may withdraw within 14 days without reason by contacting [email protected]. A full refund will be issued within 14 days using your original payment method.

7. Term and Cancellation

The following membership terms apply to purchases billed through Stripe.

Monthly plan: billed monthly in advance. It runs for an indefinite period until you cancel. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current month.

Yearly plan: the first 12 months are billed in advance; they start when the free trial ends. You can cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of those 12 months. Whether a plan counts as bought in the EEA depends on the country recorded at checkout; the EEA is the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Bought in the EEA: unless you cancel, the membership then continues for an indefinite period and is billed monthly. The monthly price is the yearly price divided by 12, rounded to the smallest unit of the payment currency and shown before you order; you can then cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current monthly billing period. Bought outside the EEA: unless you cancel, the membership renews for another 12 months at the yearly price, every year; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current 12 months. Where the applicable law does not allow a renewal for another 12 months, the rules for purchases in the EEA apply instead. I send you reminder emails 35 and 14 days before the first 12 months end and, outside the EEA, 35 and 14 days before every renewal.

2-year plan: the first 24 months are billed in advance; they start when the free trial ends. You can cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of those 24 months. Unless you cancel, the membership then continues for an indefinite period and is billed monthly. The monthly price is the 2-year price divided by 24, rounded to the smallest unit of the payment currency and shown before you order; you can then cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current monthly billing period. I send you reminder emails 35 and 14 days before the 24 months end.

3-year plan, no longer sold: existing 3-year plans keep the terms they were bought under, a single payment for 36 months of access. It ends automatically after 36 months and does not renew.

You can cancel at any time at smartergerman.com/cancel or by email to [email protected].

For purchases through Teachable's checkout, the duration, renewal and cancellation conditions shown before you order apply instead. You can also cancel those in your Teachable profile under Settings, Subscriptions.

Not using your access does not by itself entitle you to a refund for a period you have paid for. Your statutory rights to terminate and to refunds remain unaffected.

8. Refund Policy

7-day free trial: cancel before it ends and pay nothing. Monthly, yearly, 2-year and 3-year plans: no voluntary refunds. This does not affect your statutory rights, in particular the right of withdrawal in section 6 and refunds on termination under section 3. Where a free trial or a free first lesson is offered, use it to try before you buy. To request a refund contact [email protected].

AI top-up. You can add 150 AI credits a month to your membership for the price shown before you order. The AI top-up is a subscription of indefinite duration, billed monthly: it renews on the 1st of each month, you can cancel it at any time with effect from the end of the month, and unused credits expire at the end of each month. It works only together with an active membership and ends when your membership ends. It is a digital service with a 14-day right of withdrawal from the conclusion of the contract. If you ask me at checkout to start right after payment and withdraw within those 14 days, I refund your top-up payments and your remaining top-up credits end. Cancel either contract at smartergerman.com/cancel.

9. Intellectual Property

All course content - including videos, texts, exercises, and audio - is protected by copyright and belongs to Michael Schmitz / SmarterGerman. You may not copy, record, redistribute, translate, or create derivative works from any course content without written permission.

10. Disclaimer

Course materials are provided in good faith but without warranty of any kind. SmarterGerman is not liable for damages arising from use or inability to use course materials, beyond what is required by mandatory German law.

11. Changes to Terms

These terms may be revised. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. Significant changes will be communicated by email where possible.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected]

13. Self-Study Product

SmarterGerman courses are self-study products. They do not include individual learning success monitoring (Lernerfolgskontrolle), personal teacher feedback on student submissions, scheduled tutoring, or graded examinations as contractually owed features. Any feedback provided by the creator inside the community is at his sole discretion and is not a contractual entitlement. See the Community Terms for the full set of community-specific rules.

14. Age and Contracting Capacity

By purchasing a course or membership you confirm that you are at least 18 years old. A course may also be bought for another learner, for example a family member. In that case the buyer accepts these terms and confirms that the learner is also at least 18 years old.

15. Lifelong Access

15.1 Lifelong Access is offered exclusively for German Grammar Genius and DSH Exam Preparation. This section applies only when the customer's order expressly identifies one of these courses and states that Lifelong Access is included.

15.2 Lifelong Access applies only to the course identified in the order. Access to any other SmarterGerman offering requires a separate entitlement or purchase.

15.3 Lifelong Access is a personal right to use the course identified in the order after the one-time purchase price has been paid in full. It does not require a subscription, renewal, or further access fee. Lifelong Access begins when the course is made available to the customer.

15.4 Lifelong Access ends only upon the earliest of the following events:
- the customer's death
- the death of Michael Schmitz, owner and operator of SmarterGerman
- the permanent cessation of all SmarterGerman business operations
- lawful termination for good cause under section 15.9

15.5 Lifelong Access does not depend on whether the purchased course remains available for sale. Renaming, updating, replacing, combining, transferring, or moving the course to another platform does not end Lifelong Access. A sale, transfer, or renaming of the SmarterGerman business does not by itself end Lifelong Access.

15.6 Lifelong Access includes continued access to the purchased course and to corrections or revisions of its existing learning content. New or materially expanded tools, AI features, services, coaching, support, community access, or add-ons are not part of the purchase. If SmarterGerman offers such additions, they are optional and require the customer's own decision and, where applicable, a separate purchase; the purchased course remains fully usable without them.

15.7 Lifelong Access is personal, non-transferable, and non-inheritable.

15.8 Neither SmarterGerman nor the customer may terminate Lifelong Access ordinarily. The customer may stop using the course at any time.

15.9 The right of either party to terminate for good cause remains unaffected. SmarterGerman may terminate access if the customer commits a serious or repeated breach of these Terms. Where the breach can reasonably be remedied, SmarterGerman will provide written notice and a reasonable opportunity to remedy it before termination.

15.10 If the purchase is lawfully cancelled, refunded in full, or the payment is finally reversed, Lifelong Access ends.

15.11 A later change to these Terms cannot shorten Lifelong Access already purchased.

Last updated: 19 October 2026