Please note that the German version of this legal text is the legally authoritative version in the event of a dispute.

Seller Guidelines

For a high level of customer satisfaction

Our customers have high expectations of us as the provider of an online marketplace and of you as our sellers.

You yourself are best-placed to know what your customers want: fast delivery, goods in proper condition and easy communication if there are questions about the order.

We want to work with you as a seller to provide the best possible support for our and your customers, and therefore we have drawn up binding guidelines for all sellers on the online marketplace. These guidelines are designed to ensure a uniformly excellent service in the interests of the provider of the online marketplace and its sellers and customers. They apply in addition to the Seller Terms and Conditions and the terms and conditions, guidelines and policies on the relevant pages (referred to as "help pages").

In the event of inconsistencies between the German version and other language versions or otherwise in cases of doubt, the German version shall prevail.

Marketplace management at the online marketplace is of course available to speak to you personally if you have any further queries.

1. Shop name

You are generally free to choose your own retail shop name. However, you may not choose a pseudonym that could suggest an association with the provider of the online marketplace or the online marketplace itself (e.g., "Kaufland Seller").

We would also like to point out that it is also important to be aware of any third party rights when choosing a pseudonym.

The best approach is to use your company name as your pseudonym; that way you ensure your name will be recognized.

2. Communication

The online marketplace is one of the largest online shopping platforms in Europe. It is therefore essential for smooth communication that correspondence on our online marketplace is conducted exclusively in the respective national language. When registering your seller account, please ensure that questions relating to orders can be answered in the respective national language. To help sellers meet this requirement, the marketplace provider may make translation tools available. These tools are offered for convenience and as an aid; however, their use does not relieve the seller of the obligation to ensure that all communication is accurate, professional and in the correct national language.

Our shared success depends to a large extent on the satisfaction of our mutual customers. It is therefore essential that communication between sellers, Kaufland Marketplace GmbH (as the website operator) and customers is conducted in an extremely polite and professional manner. In the interests of everyone involved, it is important that the tone of conversation on online marketplaces remains friendly and polite. This means that, out of courtesy, the customer should always be addressed formally (in German, this means using the formal form of address, “Sie”).

To ensure a perfect customer experience, communication should be kept as factual, transparent and solution-orientated as possible, and inappropriate suggestions should be avoided. In particular, sellers must not repeatedly offer alternative solutions in an attempt to avoid a return if the customer has not expressed any apparent interest in an alternative.

If sellers do not have enough information to resolve an issue, they must always specify a timeframe within which the customer will receive a full response. Sellers must use the ticketing system provided to proactively contact the customer whenever a new opportunity arises to resolve the matter in question.

Please also note that the use of standardised, non-substantive automated replies (e.g. “out of office” notifications or general “message received” confirmations are not permitted when replying to incoming ticket notifications.

We would also like to point out that the system replaces both your e-mail address and the end customer’s e-mail address with an address provided by the marketplace provider, and forwards the message on behalf of the seller when the seller corresponds with the end customer via e-mail. The sender of the e-mail remains responsible for its content, in particular for the text, external links and attachments. The marketplace provider merely forwards the e-mails and therefore has no influence over their content. To prevent fraudulent activity and ensure system security, the provider reserves the right to remove e-mail formatting and external links (links to the shipping provider for tracking purposes will continue to be supported). Furthermore, attachments must be in specific file formats and must not exceed 4 MB in total. Attachments with a total size of up to 20 MB can still be sent via the provider’s ticket system.

Sellers must bear this in mind when communicating with customers. The applicable statutory, legal and contractual obligations, in particular those relating to the requirements for the communication and use of customer data, apply in full to this form of communication as well.

Filtering, deletion and content control

The marketplace provider reserves the right to review the content of all messages sent via the system. In order to comply with the guidelines, the provider may automatically store, use search filters to search for, block, translate or extract content from e-mail messages.

Prohibited content and language: The provider reserves the right to block, delete or translate messages that breach the marketplace’s requirements. These include, amongst other things, e-mails containing advertising, marketing content, requests for reviews, an inappropriate tone, or messages in a language other than the Customer’s national language.

Automated translation: Automated translations are offered for informational purposes only. The seller remains solely responsible for the accuracy, completeness and legal compliance of all communications. The provider does not guarantee the quality of the translation and accepts no liability for disputes arising from translation errors.

Extraction of documents and media: The provider reserves the right to identify and extract certain attachments or embedded media in e-mails (e.g. invoices, return labels or QR codes). To ensure a consistent customer experience, extracted attachments and media are stored by the provider and made available in the customer’s Kaufland Marketplace account. In such cases, the provider reserves the right to make only the extracted document available to the customer via its own system notifications and not to forward the seller’s original e-mail.

Communication hosting and notification centre: The provider reserves the right to host all communication between the seller and the customer (including, but not limited to, dispatch and delivery updates, tracking information and order-related enquiries) within the marketplace’s own systems (e.g. a central notification centre within the web app or mobile app). The provider may send these messages via in-app notifications, push notifications or system-generated messages, either instead of or in addition to forwarding the original e-mails.

Responsibility of the seller: The seller remains solely responsible for the accuracy, completeness and legal compliance of all e-mails and attachments, regardless of any content moderation, translation or extraction measures taken by the marketplace provider. The provider accepts no liability for the quality of the translations and shall not be held liable for any damage or disputes arising from translation errors or mistranslations.

Requirements regarding the content of e-mails

For clarification purposes, please note the following specific requirements in this regard:

E-mails that sellers are permitted to send to customers

• Updated delivery information (via shipping service providers)
• Invoice (to be sent to the customer account)
• Shipping notifications
• Provision of a return label (to be sent to the customer account)

E-mails that sellers are not allowed to send to customers

• Order confirmation
• Shipping confirmation
• Delivery confirmation
• (Mass) cancellation confirmation
• Advertising, marketing content or any requests, in particular requests to submit a review
• Messages in a language other than the shop’s national language (will be automatically translated or blocked).
• Information regarding legal texts, stock levels or non-essential order details

In the event of a breach of this seller obligation – including, but not limited to, the use of foreign languages, inappropriate content (e.g. advertising, requests for reviews) or sending prohibited types of e-mail – the online marketplace provider expressly reserves the right to impose the sanctions described in greater detail in section 14.

3. Use of artificial intelligence (AI)

The use and utilisation of artificial intelligence on our online marketplace is generally allowed. We encourage you, our seller, to use AI technology in order to optimise your business processes and improve the shopping experience of our mutual customers.

The following guidelines in particular must be observed:

• Adherence to legal standards: You are obligated to adhere to all applicable legal provisions, especially the applicable data protection laws and the standards set out in the AI Regulation.
• Data protection: When using AI, you must ensure that any processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This includes collecting, saving and processing your customers’ data.
• Transparency and fairness: You are obligated to inform our mutual customers transparently of AI usage in your services and products. Furthermore, all instances of AI usage should be created fairly and without discrimination.

4. Customer service

Contact

In addition to fast delivery and the delivery of goods in their proper condition, customer satisfaction is also particularly dependent on easy and fast communication in response to questions about orders.

To offer our shared customers the best possible service, it is therefore essential that you can be contacted.

You are therefore required to provide in your account a telephone number for Marketplace Support.

As already described in the Seller Terms and Conditions, sellers must ensure that they can be contacted on these telephone numbers during regular business hours (usually 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays from Monday to Friday, except public holidays). You must also ensure that you can be contacted by e-mail and by post.

If, for example, you do not have access to your e-mails or your seller account for more than two working days due to vacation, you must suspend your listings. The same applies in the event of adverse circumstances that interrupt your business such that prompt and timely shipping cannot be guaranteed in every respect (e.g., building renovations or migration to a new IT system). The options described above for communicating about orders that have already been received must of course also be guaranteed during any such period or while such circumstances prevail.

In the event that you as the seller enter into correspondence with our shared customers, communication must take place solely through the "Complaints" module provided by the provider of the online marketplace for this purpose. External communication with customers (e.g., by e-mail) is only permitted in cases of extreme emergency, for example if the customer contacts you directly as the seller.

Service level

Subject to the inclusion of other service KPIs in our monitoring, we also measure the quality of your service based on the following metrics:

Ticket response time

Basis for assessment: The response time for processing tickets refers to the percentage of customer inquiries to which an initial response is sent within the prescribed 48-hour period.

Target: The target for all sellers is 100%.

Measurement: An initial response must be sent within 48 hours for all tickets. This KPI is calculated from the time the ticket is assigned to your seller account. Weekends and public holidays under respective applicable law are excluded.

Seller ticket rate

Basis for calculation: The seller-related ticket rate mentioned here refers to the seller-related tickets opened in the last calendar week.

The seller-related reasons for opening a ticket include, in particular:

• Delivery delayed
• Delivery not received
• Incomplete delivery
• Incorrect delivery
• Defect/damage
• Invoice

Target value: To ensure sustainable and reliable customer satisfaction, we expect you to have a seller-related ticket rate of less than 1%.

Calculation: The seller-related ticket rate is calculated based on the ratio of seller-related tickets opened in the last calendar week as compared to the average number of order units in the last four weeks. This calculation only includes order units for which at least one seller-related ticket was opened in the last calendar week. The values are regularly updated in the Seller Portal at the beginning of every week.

Delivery performance

Basis for assessment: Ordered items delivered late are all items that are delivered after the window for delivery to the customer specified in the purchase process.

Target: The late delivery rate should not exceed 4%.

Calculation: The rate expresses ordered items delivered late as a percentage of all ordered items delivered in the last calendar week. Weekends and public holidays under respective applicable law are taken into account.

Action and consequences for non-compliance with targets:

• You can view your performance in the Seller Portal. Marketplace Controlling from the online marketplace will also notify you by e-mail of unsatisfactory service performance;
• If the above KPIs are outside the prescribed range, we expect you to take immediate and permanent action to ensure that you meet the respective target. Permanent action to meet the respective target may be achieved for instance by adjusting the delivery window;
• Please also note that in accordance with our Seller Terms and Conditions, we reserve the right to cancel orders in favor of the customer, entering "No response" as the reason for cancellation, or to issue a gift certificate (Schenkungserklärung) in accordance with the Seller Terms and Conditions, if your ticket response time exceeds the prescribed target of 48 hours;
• If your service performance fails to meet our requirements on more than one occasion, we reserve the right to take further action in accordance with clauses 14 et seq. of the Seller Terms and Conditions, such as to restrict access to your shop or terminate our cooperation.

5. Listings and product data

General

In addition to the obligations arising under the Seller Terms and Conditions, the following principles also apply when listing products and providing product data:

Sellers may list a maximum of two offers per EAN on the Kaufland marketplaces. The marketplace operator reserves the right to remove additional offers, with only the most recently posted offers remaining.

Compliance with the Product Data Guidelines is mandatory when listing products and product data. By listing its products, the seller declares that it has read and accepted these Guidelines and that its listings/product data comply with the Product Data Guidelines.

The marketplace operator reserves the right to exclude product data that does not comply with the product data guidelines from publication and/or to amend it so that it complies with the product data guidelines (e.g. by removing unauthorised watermarks from images). The seller hereby expressly agrees to this.

The condition of the item must be truthfully described based on our definitions of condition. If the goods are not new, please use the comments field to provide detailed information about the item and its condition.

If you add images in the item description, they must not contain any markings or text that is not directly related to the product.

The item must be listed in the correct product category and must be subsequently monitored. The provider expressly reserves the right to make corrections in accordance with the Seller Terms and Conditions.

Please also note that for products (not currently offered by you or another seller), the seller who most recently sold the product may be visible as the seller at item level on the online marketplace website for up to 14 days after the sale.

As the seller, you are responsible for listings and product data and for managing listings and product data, and we therefore trust you understand that the provider of the online marketplace is not liable for these listings and is unable to assume any costs if any errors are made. This also includes your liability for the product data of other sellers to the extent that you link your listings to other listings or use the product data of other sellers. Accordingly, you as a seller are responsible for reviewing your listings and the associated product presentations on an ongoing basis.

EANS

Furthermore, under a given EAN, the seller may only list items with a matching EAN. Different versions (for example rental releases or UK imports) of a product must always be listed under the correct EAN. In addition, the seller must use a separate EAN for listings of [the same] product in different conditions.

Media products included in Part B of the List of Media Harmful to Young Persons and/or which contain content that would constitute a criminal offense must not be listed in the database.

Bundling

Bundling is permitted for listings that create value added by combining at least two (heterogeneous) products offered at an all-in price.

Example of permitted bundling: set of four pans of different sizes.

However, artificial bundling by adding negligible value to a product for the purposes of denying direct price comparisons is not permitted.

Example of prohibited bundling: smartphone bundled with transparent case.

Such listings will be blocked. The provider of the online marketplace expressly reserves the right to take further action, such as to restrict access to the seller's shop or terminate the cooperation.

6. Provision of invoices

Our shared customers place great importance on receiving an invoice.

You must therefore attach an invoice to every order. You may choose whether to send the invoice in digital form or to send a paper invoice with shipment of the goods.

If our customers subsequently request an invoice, the request must be met within the aforementioned period of 48 hours.

Aside from the business details required by law, the invoice must not include any other URLs or links to your own shop.

7. Prohibited items

Certain items may not be offered on the online marketplace. Further information is available here.

8. Item availability

The availability of the items listed on the online marketplace must be continually updated. Items that cannot be delivered must not be entered into the database. In the exceptional case that an item can no longer be delivered following receipt of an order, the item must be canceled immediately. In such cases, the provider of the online marketplace reserves the right to claim any applicable contractual penalty in accordance with the Seller Terms and Conditions.

Moreover, in the exceptional case that delivery is delayed, the customer must be notified immediately via the ticket system.

9. Shipping

Items must be shipped within the specified shipping period. Only after items have been dispatched can they be marked as shipped on the online marketplace.

The provider of the online marketplace reserves the right to rank listings that do not specify a delivery time lower on the platform than listings that provide this information, or to remove them completely.

Please only send sold items to the delivery address provided by the customer, which you will receive from the provider of the online marketplace.

Items, particularly media products that must not be made available to children or young persons because they (a) are not classified by a self-regulatory body (e.g., FSK or USK) or are classified as "not suitable for persons under the age of 18"; (b) are included in the List of Media Harmful to Young Persons; or (c) are seriously harmful to young persons must be sent using a shipping method that precludes receipt by a minor. For products that are offered exclusively in the 18+ section, which end customers can only access after verifying their age, the "personal registered mail" shipping method is sufficient for this purpose.

Furthermore, the product must generally be shipped in neutral packaging. The sole exceptions are references to the provider's online marketplace and to you as seller. Details pertaining to other providers are not permitted.

10. Tracking

Sellers have the option of allowing customers to track their parcel through logistics partners.

11. Response to withdrawals from the purchase, complaints and inquiries from our Customer Service team

Any complaints by us or directly from customers (complaints) must be responded to promptly within 48 hours (weekdays Monday to Friday, except public holidays). The same applies to communication with customers in connection with withdrawals from the purchase contract within the statutory cooling-off period (Widerruf) and returns. If you fail to respond, we reserve the right to decide the matter in favor of the customer or the provider of the online marketplace.

With regard to withdrawals from the purchase contract within the statutory cooling-off period, you as the seller must ensure that at least the respective applicable minimum statutory requirements for this have been met. It is of course possible at any time to treat the customer more favorably.

In addition, in the event of:

• irregularities with deliveries or returns, for example if the item is lost because it was delivered to an unauthorized third party, or if the item returned does not match the item that was delivered, or the return parcel is empty; and
• any reduction in value or partial refund;

we would ask you to contact us without delay.

In the event of any reduction in value, the customer must be contacted and notified immediately by way of a ticket. This must occur within 48 hours of receipt of the returned item. The reason for the reduction in value must be described clearly and in detail. Please also provide a reasonable estimate of the reduction in value.

Conclusive photographs of the defect/use are essential to enable assessment of the matter. The matter will not be reviewed any further without conclusive images.

Where a review is not possible because requested information has not been provided, we reserve the right to make a decision in favor of the customer.

Furthermore, reference is made to the provisions of clause 12 of the Seller Terms and Conditions with respect to the processing of returns and of withdrawals from the purchase contract within the statutory cooling-off period.

12. Items not received

If a customer claims not to have received the item, we ask the seller to provide standard proof that the item was shipped. This must show the delivery address and be able to be tracked. We reserve the right to claim damages for any loss we suffer if such proof of shipping cannot be produced.

13. Contractual penalty for cancellations

The monthly goal for seller cancellations (especially for unfulfilled sales contracts due to items not being deliverable) is less than 1% of all orders per month. If seller cancellations exceed 1%, the seller must take steps to improve performance in order to meet the target. If the target is not met on multiple occasions, or if the seller shows no signs of making an effort to remedy the situation, this may result in the termination of the contractual relationship between the marketplace provider and the seller, irrespective of whether the transaction fees set out below are charged.

The following measures apply to keep the monthly cancellation rate (calculated as the number of seller cancellations relative to the total number of transactions in a given month) within reasonable limits:

• If you have a monthly seller cancellation rate (e.g. due to non-deliverable items) between 1% and 2.99%, you will be charged 7% of the total price of the cancelled transactions.
• If you have a monthly seller cancellation rate (e.g. due to non-deliverable items) above 3%, you will be charged 15% of the total price of the cancelled transactions.
• Sellers with only one seller cancellation per month are not affected by this rule.

The seller is entitled to prove that the marketplace provider has suffered no loss at all, or a loss that is significantly less than the agreed amount. In this case, the liability for payment is limited to the actual proven loss.

This does not affect the provider’s right to claim further damages. However, any contractual penalty paid will be set off against any claim for damages.

14. Sanctions

The provider has the right to verify compliance with the obligations under the Seller Guidelines at any time – specifically, but without limitation, in the event of complaints by third parties – by means of control measures as appropriate in the individual case and, if necessary, to take action under clause 16 of the Seller Terms and Conditions ("Sanctions") or to terminate the agreement in accordance with clause 21 of the Seller Terms and Conditions.