Terms and Conditions
D.A.S. Akademie Deutsche Akademie für Sprachen GmbH
Last updated: 3 September 2026
1. Who these Terms apply to
1.1. These Terms and Conditions apply to contracts for language tuition and related services between D.A.S. Akademie Deutsche Akademie für Sprachen GmbH, Torstraße 125, 10119 Berlin, Germany (“DAS”) and its customers (“participants”).
1.2. A consumer is a natural person entering into a transaction mainly for purposes outside their trade, business or profession.
1.3. A business customer is a natural person, legal entity or partnership with legal capacity acting in the course of its trade, business or profession.
1.4. A business customer’s own terms apply only if DAS has expressly agreed to them.
1.5. These Terms apply to bookings made through our website as well as bookings made by email or in person. Mandatory consumer rights remain unaffected.
2. Lessons and participation
2.1. Group courses for adults are generally intended for adult participants. Courses for children and young people may be booked for a minor by an adult parent, guardian or other person legally entitled to do so. In that case, the adult making the booking is the contracting party with DAS and the minor attends the lessons.
2.2. One teaching unit (UE) is 45 minutes.
2.3. No lessons take place on public holidays in Berlin or during DAS closure periods announced in advance. Lessons missed for these reasons are added to the end of the booked period. The start and end dates shown when you book already take this into account and are the dates that apply to your booking.
2.4. Prepaid private-lesson units should, where possible, be used within twelve months of purchase. This is not an expiry or forfeiture period. Statutory limitation rules apply to any unused units. Once a claim is time-barred under the applicable law, DAS may refuse to provide the affected units.
3. Booking on our website
3.1. Courses shown on the website are not binding offers from DAS. They invite you to place a booking.
3.2. Before placing the order, you choose the course, format, dates, price and payment method and can review and correct your details.
3.3. When you click the button that clearly indicates a payment obligation, you submit a binding offer to enter into the contract.
3.4. DAS confirms receipt of the order electronically without undue delay. This first message only confirms that we received the order. The contract is concluded when DAS expressly confirms the booking. In the normal online flow, the booking confirmation is sent automatically after the technical checks have succeeded and usually arrives immediately. This also applies to bookings paid by bank transfer; the amount due is then governed by the invoice and the payment information shown during booking.
3.5. With the booking confirmation, you receive the contractual information that applies to your booking on a durable medium. The applicable version of these Terms and the withdrawal information are provided in a versioned form.
4. Visa-related bookings and visa documents
4.1. Where DAS issues confirmation documents for a booked in-person course for use in a visa application, the requirements shown with the offer apply, including full payment where stated.
4.2. If the visa process is delayed, please tell us as early as possible. Where our course schedule allows it, we may offer a suitable later start date.
4.3. If the visa is finally refused, DAS refunds the course fee paid once you provide the official refusal decision. Please send the decision to us as soon as reasonably possible after receiving it.
4.4. Where offered during booking, personalised visa documents can be ordered as a separate service for €80. The service is never preselected. Its scope and price are shown before you order. The documents are prepared individually by DAS for the booked course.
4.5. If the visa is finally refused before the ordered visa documents have been fully prepared, the price paid for this additional service is also refunded. If the visa documents have already been fully prepared, the visa refusal alone does not entitle you to a refund of the service price. Statutory withdrawal and refund rights remain unaffected.
4.6. If DAS cancels the underlying course and the visa documents become unusable for their intended purpose as a result, we refund the price paid for the visa-document service.
4.7. If you ask us to start preparing visa documents before the statutory withdrawal period has ended, we obtain the declaration required by law separately. Statutory rules on withdrawal, proportionate payment for work already performed and any possible loss of the withdrawal right remain unaffected.
4.8. Withdrawing your own visa application is not the same as an official visa refusal. The general rules on ending the contract apply in that situation.
4.9. If the enrolment on which a visa confirmation was based ends, DAS may correct or withdraw a confirmation it issued to the relevant authority where this is factually necessary.
5. Statutory right of withdrawal
5.1. Consumers have the statutory right of withdrawal for distance contracts unless a statutory exception applies. The separate withdrawal information and the applicable law govern this right.
5.2. For distance contracts concluded online, DAS provides the statutory online withdrawal function throughout the withdrawal period.
5.3. If you expressly ask us to start a service before the withdrawal period ends, we obtain the declarations required by law separately. If you withdraw after performance has started, proportionate payment is due only where the law allows it. For a paid service, the right of withdrawal can end after the service has been fully performed only if the statutory conditions are met.
6. Prices and course materials
6.1. The final prices shown with the offer and immediately before you place the order apply.
6.2. Where DAS teaching services are exempt from VAT under section 4 no. 21 of the German VAT Act, VAT is neither charged nor shown. Where VAT applies, the displayed price includes the applicable statutory VAT unless clearly stated otherwise.
6.3. Course books and other materials are not included unless the offer says otherwise. If a particular book is required, we provide the necessary details in good time.
7. Payment
7.1. The payment methods and due dates shown during checkout apply. At launch these may include PayPal, card payment processed through PayPal and, where offered in checkout, bank transfer.
7.2. For bank transfers, an invoice showing the outstanding amount and due date is issued after the contract has been concluded. If bank transfer is not offered for a very short-notice booking, the online payment methods shown in checkout remain available.
7.3. If an amount is not paid when due, DAS may send a payment reminder and set a reasonable additional deadline. If that deadline passes without payment, DAS may exercise its statutory rights, including, where the legal requirements are met, withdrawing from the contract and releasing the reserved place. Any further claims are governed by the contract and the law, including any required allowance for costs saved or the place being filled by someone else.
7.4. Refunds are generally made to the original payment method. If that is not possible, or another method is lawfully agreed, the refund will be made through the agreed payment route. Statutory refunds to consumers are made without additional charges where required by law.
8. Absences and holiday days
8.1. DAS fulfils its teaching obligation when the booked lessons are made available as agreed.
8.2. If you miss a lesson for reasons within your own sphere, for example illness, holiday or late arrival, the course fee generally remains due. Any costs saved or alternative use of the place are taken into account where relevant in the individual case. There is no entitlement to a make-up lesson or individual replacement tuition. Mandatory statutory rights remain unaffected.
8.3. For in-person courses, holiday days can be taken into account only where the specific course expressly offers this option. The days must be entered during booking, are recorded in the booking confirmation and extend the displayed course period accordingly. Later changes are possible only if DAS expressly agrees.
9. Booking periods, blocks and extensions
9.1. Where offered, courses can be booked as a full level segment or in shorter blocks. The offer shows the duration, start and end date and price.
9.2. Your place is reserved for the confirmed booking period.
9.3. A shorter block does not give you an automatic right to extend it. Where an extension is possible, DAS may give you a time-limited opportunity to keep your place. We tell you the price and next period before a further booking is made.
9.4. Joining a course after it has started is possible only if a place is available and DAS considers the course a suitable academic fit for your level. Any adjusted price is shown before you book.
10. Interest lists and start-date alerts
10.1. Joining an interest list, requesting an alert or registering an interest is non-binding and does not reserve a course place.
10.2. Unless we expressly tell you otherwise, an alert does not create a guaranteed queue position or priority over other interested learners.
10.3. DAS may notify several suitable learners at the same time when a new start date becomes available. A contract is formed only after a later booking and our booking confirmation.
11. Placement and level changes
11.1. Placement is based on the placement test, the information you provide and DAS’s academic assessment.
11.2. If, during the first five teaching days, another level proves to be a better fit, DAS offers a free move to a suitable parallel group where a place is available.
11.3. If no suitable group is available, DAS offers an appropriate later start date, credit for the unused part of the booking or a pro-rata refund.
12. Group size, minimum enrolment, small groups and group pricing
12.1. Unless a course says otherwise, in-person group courses have a maximum of 12 participants and online group courses a maximum of 10.
12.2. A group course runs once the minimum group size shown with that course has been reached.
12.3. If the minimum group size is not reached and the course therefore cannot start, DAS contacts booked participants no later than five business days before the start date. If you book later than that, we contact you without undue delay once it is clear that the course cannot start. You can choose a free move to another suitable start date, full credit or a full refund of the course fee. For this purpose, business days are Monday to Friday excluding public holidays in Berlin.
12.4. DAS may additionally offer to run the course as a small group of at least three participants, with the number of teaching units reduced by no more than one third and the price unchanged. This arrangement applies only if the participant actively agrees after receiving the full information. Without that agreement, the choices in section 12.3 remain available.
12.5. If the small group later reaches the regular minimum group size, the full number of teaching units resumes from the following week. A later drop below the threshold does not trigger another reduction.
12.6. Groups formed by participants. For offers marked accordingly, learners who organise their own group can qualify for a group price. Organising or inviting a group does not mean that the organiser enters into contracts on behalf of other participants. Each person books and pays for their own course.
12.7. Provisional group price. Where shown with the offer, a participant may initially book at a 5% reduced group price. Whether this price becomes final is determined on the confirmation date shown before booking. The reduced group price is available only for bookings made by that confirmation date.
12.8. Group size used for the price check. The count includes participants in the same group whose booking, on the confirmation date, is fully paid and has not been cancelled. If at least eight participants meet these conditions, the reduced group price becomes final.
12.9. Fewer than eight participants. If fewer than eight participants meet the conditions in section 12.8 on the confirmation date but the booked course still runs, the difference between the group price already paid and the regular individual course price shown at the time of booking becomes due. DAS informs the participant and provides a separate way to pay. The difference is due within 14 days after the payment request is received. DAS does not charge the difference automatically.
12.10. Course does not run. If the course also fails to reach its minimum group size and therefore does not run, the choices in section 12.3 apply. No difference to the regular individual price is charged.
12.11. Changes after the confirmation date. Once the group price has been determined, a later absence, non-attendance or individual cancellation by another participant does not change the price for the remaining participants.
13. Credit
13.1. Credit expressly granted by DAS represents the recorded monetary value and can be used for DAS offers unless different conditions were agreed when the credit was issued.
13.2. Credit cannot be transferred to someone else unless DAS agrees.
13.3. Statutory limitation periods apply to claims arising from credit.
13.4. If credit was issued because DAS cancelled a course, we pay it out at the participant’s request.
14. Changes or ending the booking before the course starts
14.1. Before the course starts, you can switch free of charge to another available start date or choose full credit. If you instead ask to end the contract and receive a refund, DAS’s claims are calculated under the applicable statutory rules. Costs saved and any alternative filling of the place are taken into account. There is no flat cancellation fee.
14.2. Notices to DAS can be given in text form, for example by email, unless the law requires a different form. The statutory online functions for withdrawal and contract cancellation remain available.
15. Private-lesson appointments
15.1. An agreed private-lesson appointment can be cancelled or moved free of charge up to 24 hours before it starts. A replacement time is agreed with DAS.
15.2. If you cancel later or do not attend, the fee for the appointment generally remains due. Any costs saved or alternative use of the teaching time are taken into account.
16. Online lessons
16.1. Online courses are taught live using the video-conferencing service named with the offer.
16.2. Participants are responsible for a suitable internet connection and suitable devices. Where DAS provides the lesson as agreed, technical problems that arise exclusively on the participant’s side do not generally create a right to a refund. Mandatory statutory rights remain unaffected.
16.3. DAS does not record lessons. Participants may not make recordings without the prior consent of everyone affected.
17. Responsibilities and conduct
17.1. Participants are responsible for any visas, residence permissions and personal insurance they need.
17.2. Participants must respect the course and house rules and the rights of other participants and teachers.
17.3. In the event of serious or repeated breaches, DAS may, after a warning unless a warning is exceptionally unnecessary, take appropriate action up to and including termination for good cause. Financial consequences are governed by law.
18. Liability
18.1. DAS has unlimited liability for intent and gross negligence and for injury to life, body or health.
18.2. In cases of simple negligence, DAS is liable only for breach of a material contractual obligation — one whose performance is essential to the proper performance of the contract and on which the participant can normally rely. In that case, liability is limited to the typical, foreseeable loss.
18.3. Mandatory statutory liability remains unaffected.
19. Privacy
Information about how we process personal data is set out in the Privacy Notice on our website.
20. Final provisions
20.1. German law applies. For consumers, this choice of law does not deprive them of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which they habitually reside.
20.2. Statutory rules on jurisdiction apply to consumers. If the participant is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction is Berlin.
20.3. Notices to DAS may be given in text form unless the law requires a stricter form.
20.4. The German and English versions of these Terms are intended to have the same meaning. If they differ, the German version prevails to the extent that this does not conflict with mandatory consumer-protection rules.
20.5. We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute-resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.