Algemene voorwaarden

Last revision: 1 May 2026

General terms and conditions

• These general terms and conditions apply to all quotations and agreements, the resulting orders, contracts, deliveries, products and services of any kind between Fiction Industries BV (or under the trade name Studio Mikado) and the customer.
• By placing an order, the customer declares that they agree to these terms and conditions, which always take precedence over any general terms and conditions of the customer.
• Deviations and additions are only binding if agreed in writing between the parties.
• Fiction Industries BV is entitled to engage third parties in the performance of its agreements, or parts thereof.

Quotations and prices

• All quotations are non-binding and remain valid for 30 days, unless stated otherwise.
• All prices are exclusive of VAT.
• All prices on the website, quotations and other documents of Fiction Industries BV are subject to typographical errors. No liability is accepted for the consequences of typographical errors.
• Quotations must be considered in their entirety. Fiction Industries BV cannot be obliged to perform part of the quotation for a corresponding part of the stated price, unless explicitly agreed by Fiction Industries BV.
• All administration screens and pages that are not included in the design will be standard pages, in accordance with the platform used (CMS or other platform). Fiction Industries BV assumes that behavior or workflows not described follow the standard functionality of the platform used, unless stated otherwise in the quotation and/or agreement.

Written confirmation

• Quotations must be confirmed by the customer as approval by signing the quotation; this can be provided by email or delivered in writing.
• The customer acknowledges mutual email or fax correspondence as legal, valid evidence in application of article 2281 of the Civil Code.
• Any cancellation of an agreement that has been concluded gives rise to compensation of all costs already incurred.

Provision of data

• The customer ensures that all data which Fiction Industries BV indicates is necessary for carrying out the assignment is provided in time.
• If this data is not provided in time, performance of the assignment may be delayed or suspended.
• The material supplied by the customer to Fiction Industries BV consists of immediately usable text, images, sound and/or video images in a common file format, unless agreed otherwise in writing between Fiction Industries BV and the customer.
• Data supplied by the customer is deemed to comply with applicable copyright laws and other intellectual property laws.
• If the customer does not supply information or supplies it late, the project may automatically be temporarily set to inactive. The project will be rescheduled once the relevant information has been supplied. Temporarily setting the project to inactive may affect the delivery time and may result in additional costs.

Delivery time

• The delivery time starts on the date the assignment is received by Fiction Industries BV.
• Projects are included in the planning once the project advance has been received in the bank account of Fiction Industries BV.
• The period stated by Fiction Industries BV for carrying out the assignment is indicative, unless agreed otherwise in writing.
• Fiction Industries BV delivers the project to the client by sending an email message with a link granting access to the technically and graphically developed website.
• Delays in execution do not under any circumstances give rise to compensation for the customer, unless agreed otherwise in writing.
• If the agreement is executed in phases, Fiction Industries BV may suspend execution of a phase until the client has approved the previous phase in writing.
• Projects are only delivered definitively if all outstanding invoices have been paid by the customer.

Change of assignment

• If the customer’s wishes, which Fiction Industries BV considers a change or addition to what is stated in the quotation, lead to changed or additional work for Fiction Industries BV, this may constitute additional work. If Fiction Industries BV believes this is the case, it will inform the customer as soon as possible of the impact on budget and planning and request approval.
• The customer decides on the proposed additional work within 5 working days. Work performed in the context of accepted additional work will be recorded in a written agreement and approved in writing by both parties. If the delivery date is extended due to additional work, the customer is responsible for this extension.
• The customer and Fiction Industries BV jointly agree on the specific steps, delivery dates and deadlines for the project in the quotation or a planning document.
• If Fiction Industries BV and the customer agree, they may deviate from the agreed delivery dates and deadlines without further consequences.

Malfunctions and force majeure

• Neither party can be held liable for delays or defects in performance of the agreement if these delays or defects result from facts or circumstances independent of the will of one of the parties, unforeseeable, and unavoidable.
• On pain of forfeiture, the party wishing to invoke such facts or circumstances is obliged to notify the other party in writing as soon as possible, make every effort to limit the duration to the strict minimum, and also notify the other party in writing when these facts or circumstances have ended.
• If these facts or circumstances last longer than 3 months, each party may terminate the agreement by operation of law and by registered letter without any compensation being due.
• Any services already delivered by Fiction Industries BV up to the moment of force majeure will still be invoiced.

Intellectual property rights

• All intellectual property rights in all software developed or made available under the agreement—such as analyses, designs, documentation, reports, quotations, as well as preparatory material thereof—remain at all times the property of Fiction Industries BV.

Software development

• The parties will specify in writing which software will be developed and how this will be done. Fiction Industries BV will carry out the development with due care based on the data provided by the customer. The customer guarantees the accuracy, completeness and consistency of this data.
• The customer obtains the right to use the software within their company or organization. Ownership of ideas, concepts or designs provided by Fiction Industries BV remains entirely with Fiction Industries BV, unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing.
• Fiction Industries BV has the right to use open-source components.
• Fiction Industries BV is not responsible for malfunctions, bugs and updates in open-source systems and external supporting systems (e.g., browsers, operating systems, etc.) or their effects on the software after delivery.
• Fiction Industries BV may, at its own discretion, propose to the customer to use existing (paid or unpaid) modules.
• The operation of these modules is considered standard functionality. Changes to the operation of these modules are not included in the proposal unless explicitly stated.
• Fiction Industries BV cannot be held liable for the correct operation of these modules.
• License costs for these modules will be charged to the customer. Fiction Industries BV will always use a group license if available. Where applicable, the customer must still purchase their own license when cooperation with Fiction Industries BV is terminated.

Rights of use

• Fiction Industries BV grants the customer the non-exclusive right to use the software.
• The right of use is not transferable. The customer is not permitted to sell, rent, copy, alienate, grant limited rights in, or make available to a third party in any way or for any purpose whatsoever the software and the media on which it is recorded, even if the third party uses the software solely for the benefit of the customer, unless agreed otherwise in writing.

Custom software / Software on Demand

• “Custom software” or “software on demand” means: software, automations, integrations, dashboards, scripts, AI solutions and other digital tools developed specifically at the customer’s request and tailored to the customer’s internal workflow, processes and/or third-party systems.
• Custom software is developed based on the information, wishes, documentation, access, test data and functional expectations provided by the customer. The customer is fully responsible for the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of this information.
• Unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing, the development of custom software is an obligation of best efforts and explicitly not an obligation to achieve a specific result.
• Fiction Industries BV cannot be held liable if the custom software does not fully meet expectations, processes or use cases that were not expressly, fully and previously communicated in writing.
• If the custom software depends on APIs, plugins, modules, data sources, AI models, external platforms or other third-party systems, Fiction Industries BV cannot be held liable for malfunctions, limitations, changes, price adjustments, discontinuations, security issues or changed operation thereof.
• For AI functionalities, AI automations and AI-generated output, Fiction Industries BV explicitly accepts no liability for unwanted, incorrect, incomplete, harmful or commercially disadvantageous outcomes. The customer remains fully responsible for checking, validating, interpreting and finally approving all AI-generated or AI-processed output.
• Fiction Industries BV is not liable for direct or indirect damage arising from hacking, malware, phishing, data breaches, unauthorized access, account misuse, misconfigurations, vulnerabilities in external systems or other cyber incidents, except in cases of fraud or intentional fault.
• The customer is obliged to thoroughly and comprehensively test the custom software before going live, including but not limited to: functional flows, permissions management, calculations, data processing, integrations, notifications, AI automations and output of third-party systems.
• Going live, putting into use, or not reporting defects in writing within a reasonable test period counts as acceptance of the custom software by the customer.
• Defects that could reasonably have been discovered through normal, thorough testing before going live cannot be invoked after going live as grounds for liability, free adjustment or compensation.
• Custom software is delivered in the condition it is in at the time of delivery (“as is”), subject to the functionalities expressly agreed in writing.
• Any request for expansion, modification, additional integration, extra security, optimization, reporting, new workflow, additional validation or other new functionality is considered additional work and billed separately.
• Requests for new features, additional business logic or changes due to evolving customer needs are not covered by any warranty/guarantee or the original quotation.
• Unless otherwise agreed in writing, maintenance, monitoring, support, security updates, compatibility updates, model updates, retraining, prompt optimization and follow-up after delivery are not included in the original price.
• The customer remains responsible for the correct and lawful use of the custom software, as well as for checking all output, communications, transactions, data changes and actions carried out through this software.
• If the customer or a third party appointed by the customer makes changes to the custom software, configuration, hosting environment, API settings, prompts, access, data sources or connected systems, any warranty and liability of Fiction Industries BV for the consequences thereof lapses.
• Fiction Industries BV does not guarantee that custom software will remain uninterrupted, error-free, fully secure or permanently compatible with all current and future systems, versions, browsers, platforms, AI models or external services.
• The customer acknowledges that custom software is by definition specific and evolving, and that additional alignment, fine-tuning or expansions after delivery may entail additional costs.

Domain names and web hosting

• Fiction Industries BV acts only as an intermediary for the customer in obtaining a domain name and/or IP addresses and providing web hosting.
• Application for, allocation and any use of a domain name and/or IP addresses depend on and are subject to the applicable rules and procedures of the relevant registering bodies, including DNS. The relevant body decides on the allocation of a domain name and/or IP addresses. Fiction Industries BV only fulfills an intermediary role in the application and gives no guarantee that an application will be granted.
• Domain names are registered in the name of the customer and the customer is fully responsible for the use of the domain and domain name. The customer indemnifies Fiction Industries BV against any third-party claim in connection with use of the domain name, even if Fiction Industries BV did not mediate in obtaining the domain name.
• All hosting contracts offered by Fiction Industries BV have a basic term of one year. The term starts as soon as the space is made available on a web server of Fiction Industries BV.
• If the client chooses to arrange the project’s web hosting via Fiction Industries BV, hosting will take place on an optimized server and the client is bound by the general terms and conditions and the agreements with the hosting partner used by Fiction Industries BV. The client acknowledges being aware of and accepting these terms and agreements.
• If the client chooses to have the project’s web hosting provided by another hosting partner, the client is bound by that hosting partner’s conditions. In that case, Fiction Industries BV is not responsible for performance and security. Any additional work by Fiction Industries BV resulting from the choice of that hosting provider will be charged to the customer.
• The client is not permitted to distribute, display or sell copyrighted material, pornographic, racist, antisemitic, negationist or hate-inciting messages, or weapons on websites hosted by or via Fiction Industries BV.
• Fiction Industries BV is not responsible for the security of or access to the website.
• Hosting is invoiced periodically in advance for the upcoming period.
• Concluding an SLA (Service Level Agreement) is mandatory if hosting via Fiction Industries BV is chosen.
• Unless agreed otherwise, the customer is responsible for transferring a website in the event of termination of a hosting agreement. If assistance from Fiction Industries BV is requested, these services will be charged on a time-and-materials basis.

Subscriptions

• Subscriptions generally include operational and advisory consultancy. This is always an obligation of best efforts and explicitly not an obligation to achieve a specific result. Advice is always provided to the best of ability and based on available information, but is in no way binding. The customer bears full responsibility for implementing such advice and indemnifies Fiction Industries BV against any responsibility or liability for the direct or indirect consequences of the advice.
• Subscriptions are activated and invoiced at the start of the project.
• Subscriptions are invoiced periodically in advance for the upcoming period.

Retention of title

• As long as the customer has not made full payment of the entire agreed amount, all delivered goods/services remain the property of Fiction Industries BV. If the customer fails to fulfill any obligations under the agreement towards Fiction Industries BV, Fiction Industries BV is entitled, without any notice of default, to reclaim or render unavailable the delivered goods, in which case the agreement is dissolved without judicial intervention, without prejudice to Fiction Industries BV’s right to compensation for damage, lost profit and interest.

Payment terms

• An advance of 30% is invoiced upon signing the agreement. The remaining balance to be invoiced (70% of the original budget, increased by any additional costs) is settled monthly according to the services delivered on the project in the relevant month.
• All invoices must be paid no later than 30 days after the invoice date.
• If the invoice is not paid on time or in full, the customer will be in default by operation of law from 30 days after the payment term, without any notice of default being required. If an amount due is not paid within the payment term, contractual interest of 2% per month is due on the outstanding amount, with a minimum of EUR 50 for internal costs, excluding any legal costs, even if grace periods are granted, without this preventing the application of article 1244 of the Civil Code.
• All delivery and travel costs are at the customer’s expense at EUR 1 per kilometer, calculated from the head office of Fiction Industries BV.
• Any اعتراض/protest of an invoice, to be admissible, must be communicated to Fiction Industries BV in writing within 10 working days after the sending date of the invoice.
• A protest of any kind by the client does not suspend the client’s obligations (including payment obligations).
• From the moment the client exceeds the payment term and/or does not comply with other provisions of the agreement and/or these general terms and conditions, Fiction Industries BV has the right to take the website offline or stop development.

Liability

• Fiction Industries BV’s responsibility for direct and proven damage suffered by the customer due to an error by Fiction Industries BV in performing the arrangements in the agreement, or due to unlawful acts by Fiction Industries BV, its employees or third parties engaged by it, is limited to the amount the customer owes per year under this agreement (excluding VAT). The maximum amount Fiction Industries BV must pay for this direct damage is EUR 10,000 (excluding VAT).
• Furthermore, Fiction Industries BV is not responsible for indirect damage, such as loss of income, corruption or loss of data or business interruption.
• Except in cases where the damage is the result of intent or conscious negligence of Fiction Industries BV’s management, there are no other liabilities for damage.
• Fiction Industries BV is not responsible for any damage caused by external parties, except third parties engaged by it. To the extent that Fiction Industries BV depends in its activities on the cooperation, services and/or supplies of third parties of the client, Fiction Industries BV cannot in any way be held liable for any damage arising from these relationships.
• In the event of attributable failure to perform the agreement, Fiction Industries BV can only be liable for compensation limited to the invoice amount agreed between Fiction Industries BV and the client.
• Liability of Fiction Industries BV due to attributable failure to perform an agreement arises only if the customer notifies Fiction Industries BV in writing within 48 hours after the occurrence of the damage, promptly and properly, placing Fiction Industries BV in default and setting a reasonable period to remedy the failure, and Fiction Industries BV also remains culpably in breach after that period. The notice of default must contain as detailed a description as possible of the failure so that Fiction Industries BV can respond adequately.
• Any liability of Fiction Industries BV for any other form of damage is excluded, including compensation for indirect damage, consequential damage or damage due to loss of turnover or profit.
• Fiction Industries BV is not responsible or liable for loss or damage, whether direct, indirect or consequential, including loss of profit, arising from a claim or an event.
• For the purpose of providing services, Fiction Industries BV may deem it appropriate to transfer information about the client to third parties outside Europe that do not have data protection laws comparable to those in Europe. The client accepts this risk entirely at their own expense.
• The client must take into account that information sent via the internet can be intercepted by third parties.
• Fiction Industries BV is not responsible or liable for the content of material supplied by the client that is placed on the client’s website.
• The content of data distribution and publication remains in all cases the client’s own responsibility. Fiction Industries BV is not deemed to limit or supervise it, nor can Fiction Industries BV be held liable for the content or wording (including language errors) of the publication. All copyrights, fees, expenses or fines are borne by the client.
• Since the client is/becomes the owner of the website, they may also perform unsafe actions. Fiction Industries BV cannot in any way guarantee security if the client (or a third party on behalf of the client) makes configurations outside creating content for the website. Fiction Industries BV bears no liability in these cases.
• Fiction Industries BV makes every effort to ensure the security of its systems. However, no data storage or transfer can be guaranteed 100% secure. The client accepts this risk entirely at their own expense.
• The client accepts that, given the large number of possible operating system and browser combinations, Fiction Industries BV cannot guarantee that the website will function on every system.

Term and termination

• The agreement for hosting services subscriptions, SLAs and user licenses is entered into for a minimum term of twelve months. Unless agreed otherwise in writing, if written notice of termination is not given, the agreement is always tacitly renewed for a period of twelve months.
• All agreements for (web) applications or other services are entered into for the duration of the project, unless agreed otherwise.
• The agreement for hosting services and user licenses can only be terminated in writing, observing a notice period of 1 month.
• If the customer fails to comply with any obligation incumbent upon them under the agreement or pursuant to these terms and conditions, Fiction Industries BV has the right to dissolve all agreements concluded with the customer without any notice of default or judicial intervention being required, without prejudice to Fiction Industries BV’s right to compensation for damage, lost profit and interest.

Confidentiality

• The parties undertake to maintain confidentiality regarding all confidential information they receive about the other party’s business. The parties also impose this obligation on their employees as well as on third parties engaged by them to perform the agreement between the parties.
• Information is in any case considered confidential if it has been designated as such by one of the parties.
• Fiction Industries BV is entitled to include the delivered services on its own website as soon as the project is available to the public and may use the delivered project in its own commercial communications.

Staff

• The customer will provide employees of Fiction Industries BV who perform work at the customer’s premises for the delivery of products and/or services with all necessary support in this regard.

Non-solicitation

• The client and organizations acting on behalf of the client under the agreement are not permitted, for as long as the relationship between the client and Fiction Industries BV continues as well as for one year after it ends, to employ employees of Fiction Industries BV or otherwise, directly or indirectly, have them work for the client without prior written permission from Fiction Industries BV. For this purpose, employees of Fiction Industries BV include persons employed by Fiction Industries BV or one of its affiliated companies or who were employed by Fiction Industries BV or one of its affiliated companies no more than six months ago.

Complaints

• Complaints regarding deliveries or performance of the agreement in general must reach Fiction Industries BV in writing within 8 working days after performance/delivery. After this period, the assignment is deemed to have been definitively delivered and accepted by the customer.
• In the event of timely and well-founded objections, Fiction Industries BV will make every effort to provide a free repair within a reasonable period. This does not give rise to any right to compensation for the customer.
• The customer’s own interventions eliminate any grounds for complaint.
• A complaint does not suspend the customer’s obligations.

Warranty

• The warranty consists of Fiction Industries BV, at its discretion, making every effort to attempt to repair reported defects or provide a solution.
• SaaS (Software as a service): With respect to software of third parties used under license or otherwise and the related documentation, Fiction Industries BV provides no warranty, express or implied, regarding—among other things, but not limited to—the quality or suitability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. Fiction Industries BV also does not guarantee that the use of the licensed software will be uninterrupted or error-free.
• Modules (paid or unpaid): With respect to third-party modules used under license or otherwise and the related documentation, Fiction Industries BV provides no warranty, express or implied, regarding—among other things, but not limited to—the quality or suitability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. Fiction Industries BV also does not guarantee that use of the software will be uninterrupted or error-free.
• Custom web projects: After delivery of the project, the customer can benefit from 30 calendar days during which bugs are resolved free of charge. Delivery means the moment the project (in whole or in part) is first visible to the outside world on the domain name. Any warranty lapses if the customer has repair or other work carried out by third parties, unless Fiction Industries BV has given prior written consent.
• Consultancy assignments: Operational and advisory consultancy assignments are performed as an obligation of best efforts and explicitly not as an obligation to achieve a specific result. Advice is always provided to the best of ability and based on available information, but is in no way binding. The customer bears full responsibility for implementing such advice and indemnifies Fiction Industries BV against any responsibility or liability for the direct or indirect consequences of that advice.
• During the warranty period, bugs will be resolved without additional cost. Bugs cause technical conflicts and negatively affect the operation of the website. There is no bug when:
  • new functionality is requested;
  • design changes are needed/requested;
  • errors are caused by incorrect administration of the website by the client;
  • it concerns incorrect use of the application by the client;
  • incorrect information provided by the client leads to defects.
• If no defects/bugs are reported to Fiction Industries BV within the stated period, any possibility of protest lapses. After this 30-day period, defects and bugs will, if possible and provided Fiction Industries BV wishes to accept the assignment, be resolved and charged on a time-and-materials basis.

Invalidity

• The nullity or invalidity of a specific provision of the General Terms and Conditions does not result in the nullity of the entire agreement.
• The void provision will be replaced by the parties by mutual agreement with a valid provision of the same scope and substantively as close as possible to the content and intent of the original provision.

Applicable law and competent court

• Belgian law applies exclusively to all obligations under this agreement.
• All disputes fall under the jurisdiction of the court of Ghent.