All supplies of liquid gases accomplished in road and railroad tankers, gases delivered in cylinders, pallets, fixed bundles, containers, and trailers, as well as the supplies of other products and services, are governed by the following General business conditions, unless otherwise determined by special written agreements. Under the concept of cylinder, a metallic pressure tank for gas transportation up to 90 l of water content is understood. A pallet means transportation equipment fitted for transportation of individual cylinders. A fixed bundle of cylinders means a number of mutually interconnected cylinders on a common transportation base. A container means a mobile container for the gas transport with the volume higher than 90 l of water content. A trailer means road or railroad trailer, where certain quantity of mutually interconnected fixed bundles of steel cylinders is placed on the undercarriage. A customer number means the customer identification number, assigned to him at his first purchase of goods, under which his current balance of rented cylinders, pallets, fixed bundles, and containers, as well as his liabilities, is kept.

Transportation of gases, including cylinders, pallets, fixed bundles, and containers is performed from the platform of the selling place of Linde Gas a.s. (further only Linde). During one's own collection or taking-over by the haulage contractor who is delegated by the customer, the customer or the delegated haulage contractor, as the case may be, is responsible for operationally and transportationally safe loading and unloading. During manipulation with industrial gases and their transportation, the customer must adhere to relevant regulations, especially provisions on labour safety and accident prevention, as well as generally accepted technology rules including ČSN 078304 standard, always in their effective wording.

The storage equipment of Linde the customer takes the liquid industrial gases into is standardly equipped with the device for the industrial gas stock remote monitoring (Accura Liquid Management service). In this case, the customer does not order individual partial deliveries; Linde supplies the customer with industrial gases based on the stock level that is determined via this device so that the customer has sufficient gas stock in the storage equipment by taking his usual demand into account.

The customer is obliged to enable Linde the industrial gas delivery into the storage equipment at any time, 24-hours-a-day; he is also obliged to secure the delivery overtake confirmation by his authorised representative. The customer is further obliged to inform Linde in writing about his planned industrial gas taking interruption from the storage equipment (e.g. due to the planned standstill) or about the planned industrial gas consumption increase by more than 30 % compared to his preceding usual daily consumption in minimum 24-hour advance; he is obliged to state the expected duration of this situation. The notice which was made by e-mail or fax is considered to be in writing as well. In case of this obligation breach, Linde does not guarantee the sufficient liquid industrial gas stock securing in the storage equipment of Linde.

In other cases, individual partial deliveries are determined by the customer in his order, which contains the gas quantity, term, and place of discharge. Orders are made generally in writing, while orders made by mail, letter, or fax are also considered to be in the written form. Orders are to be sent directly to the sales place of Linde, in case of gases delivered in road or railroad trucks and trailers at least 3 working days in advance, in case of other gases at least at 11 o’clock of the working day which preceds the day of the required delivery. Linde cannot guarantee the fulfilment of the later-made orders in extreme cases, mainly for transportation reasons. Should the goods shipment be liable to the excise tax, the customer is obliged to give the purpose of the goods usage in accord to the excise tax law when he is ordering.

The prices of gases, other products, and services follow the valid price list of the Linde company.

Customer is obliged to pay rent for hired distribution means. The hire relationship is established by signing the delivery note by the customer. Amount of daily hire and supplementary hire is governed by valid tariffs, just as these are available on the selling places of Linde, which is competent to change these tariffs also during the hiring relationship.

In case of Linde distribution means, which are hired by the customer for longer than three months without turning-over (i.e. without exchange of empty for full ones), the customer will pay additional rental. For the distribution means recorded according to its relevant individual barcode assigned to the production and registration number of the distribution means, the daily and additional rental are invoiced for the relevant distribution means. In case of the fix-term contract, the hire ends by the fix-term expiry or by the contract withdrawal for legal reasons. In case of the permanent hire contract, any contracting party might terminate the contract with the one-month notice period. The daily and additional rental invoicing of the distribution means recorded according to its individual barcode ends on the day when this distribution means is given back by the customer. Handing-over of distribution means to the third person is not allowed.

Customer is responsible for misappropriation, loss, larceny, damage, destruction or failure to return the distribution means, rented to him.

It is prohibited, that customer would change - on the customer number allocated to him - larger number of distribution means, than he has rented from Linde under his customer number.

At any time, the customer can return the distribution means at his own expenses to Linde selling place during its opening hours. Linde selling place gives the customer a written confirmation about their receipt.

The customer has to revise the accuracy of the account statement concerning the balance of rented distribution means which is a part of rental account, without delay. Objections are admissible within one month after obtaining statement of the rental account, otherwise the statement of account is considered to be accepted as valid by the customer, and the number of distribution means mentioned there is the basis for statement of the rental account in the following period. Statement of rental (print-out from the customer number) has the force of confirmation of the number of rented distribution means.

Customer is obliged to notify to Linde any changes concerning his person, which could influence business relationship between him and Linde, especially changes of the name, company name or address (domicile) or shop, or the change of his VAT registration, without delay. Retentive right to the rented distribution means is excluded for the period of the contract of lease.

Rental is payable and charged minimally once a month.

Linde is entitled to require, and customer is obliged to pay a deposit without interest rate for distribution means rented to the customer, up to the amount of purchase price of the distribution means. Settlement of the deposit will be performed after the distribution means returning to Linde selling place, after crediting of the expenses which arose to Linde for compensatory measures, elimination of damages, contamination, or other obligations.

The day of crediting is counted as the day of obligation payment by crediting.

In case of misappropriation, larceny, damage, destruction or failure to return the distribution means, the customer is obliged to pay the following contractual penalty to Linde after the end of hire: 4,000.,- CZK for every pressurised cylinder; 5,000.- CZK for every transportation pallet; 80,000.- CZK for every fixed bundle (including cylinders), and 100,000.- CZK for every container. Contractual penalty does not affect the right of Linde to compensation for damage, which Linde is entitled to claim separately.

Customers' cylinders, which are marked as such, are re-filled according to the customers' order. At the same time, the customer's order comprises also the necessary check-out according to the valid regulations, which must be, according to these regulations, performed before filling the cylinder in the filling plant. By his order, the customer also confirms his consent with the settlement of account and price of this revision.

Linde is authorised to ask for the payment in cash up to the maximum amount which is set by the law. Linde is entitled to require payment by postal money order or bank cheque without limitation also in case of those legal persons, which are unable to prove for certainty their solvency or business morality. All payments done by the customer are based on the tax documents issued by Linde. The tax document due date is 14 days after the date of issue, unless a longer due date is stated at the tax document. In case of payment delay of any tax document, the customer is obliged to pay Linde the moratory interest of 0.02 % of the due amount for any delayed day. Besides this, Linde is also entitled to discontinue supplies of industrial gases up to the full payment of the due amount, or to back out of the contract and require immediate returning of the distribution means.

Until the full settlement of liabilities by the customer, the delivered goods remain in ownership of Linde.

In case of delayed supplies or drop-out in supplies, a customer can - provided Linde will not perform the supply in alternative term - back out of contract. Damages arisen in this way are covered according to law and these conditions.

In case when Linde is obliged to compensate the incurred damage to the customer under conditions given by law, the contracting parties agreed on the extent of compensation for damage so that Linde will reimburse the customer for damage in proven amount, however maximum the amount of 20,000,000.- CZK. The right for damages and unfounded enrichment delivery expires in the three-year limitation period.

If the supply is defective or the delivered gas quantity is incorrect, the customer is entitled to set up a claim that conforms to the valid legislation and the internal rules of Linde. Less than 50 % of stated filling quantity must be consumed during gas quality claim, namely because of possibility of proper check analysis performance. Distribution means with defective goods must not be used any longer and, after noticeable marking, they must be returned to the selling place. In this case, the customer can require repeated supply free of charge, with elimination of further claims. If this additional filling is not successful, customer can, according to his selection, require reduction of the purchase price for the defective supply, or require delivery cancellation.

All cases of force majeure as well as operational, traffic and power failures, strikes, lock-outs are freeing that one, who is inflicted by them, from contractual obligations for the duration and in extent of the effect of these events. This holds true also at that time, when the circumstances mentioned above come into being at subcontractors.

If data on quantity in cylinders are in "m3", then it refers to gas condition at 15°C and pressure of 0.1 MPa. Residual contents in returned distribution means are not subject to compensation.

Linde is entitled to realise its supplier's duties by means of a third person.

Together with the supplied gas price, the customer will be charged the ADR, road, and energy fee for any cylinder, cylinder bundle, mobile tank, trailer, or the liquid gas delivery to the stable tank, the fee for the relevant goods certificate given over to the customer with the delivery of the individual gas type, and other fees stated in the valid price list of Linde. The charged amount conforms to the valid rates that are published and put up at the Linde selling places, unless stated differently in the contract.

Changes and amendments of negotiated conditions are required to be in written form. An electronic message does not represent the written form.

The local court, in whose jurisdiction the headquarters of Linde are located, is responsible for solving all disputes between customer and Linde under compliance with factual jurisdiction. Should the customer be consumer, the subject of the out-of-court dispute resolution is the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (CTIA) then. Please see further information at www.coi.cz.

Linde owns "Declaration of conformity" for the steel cylinders including the welded ones that is provided by the cylinder supplier for the cylinders produced after 1 September 1997 that are used for the gas distribution.