General Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) for the Use of SilentHire

These General Terms and Conditions ("T&Cs") govern your use of the SilentHire platform (the "Platform") as a registered user — in particular as a searching company (employer) or as a recruiter. SilentHire brings together searching companies (employers) and recruiters to fill specific positions, without itself becoming a party to the placement or service agreements concluded between them.

1. Scope

(1) These T&Cs apply to all usage relationships between SilentHire and you in connection with the provision and use of the Platform.

(2) Deviating, conflicting, or supplementary general terms and conditions of yours do not apply unless SilentHire has expressly agreed to their validity in text form (e.g. by email).

2. Contracting Parties and B2B Focus

(1) The Platform is intended exclusively for entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB), i.e. natural or legal persons or partnerships with legal capacity who, when using the Platform, act in the exercise of their commercial or independent professional activity.

(2) Registration and use by consumers within the meaning of § 13 BGB (for private purposes) and by minors is excluded.

3. Registration, User Account, Contract Term and Termination

(1) Use of the Platform requires registration with truthful and complete information. If you are a company, you provide in particular your company details; if you act as a recruiter, you state the legal form in which you operate (e.g. agency, sole proprietorship, consultancy).

(2) SilentHire may reject your registration or suspend your account if there are doubts about your identity, credibility, or commercial activity, or if you violate these T&Cs.

(3) The usage agreement for use of the Platform is concluded for an indefinite period. You may terminate it at any time without notice in text form (e.g. by email).

(4) SilentHire may terminate the usage agreement with you with 14 days' notice to the end of a month. The right to extraordinary termination for good cause (e.g. in the case of serious violations, abuse, false statements) remains unaffected.

(5) Upon termination or suspension taking effect, your access to the Platform and to your account's features may be restricted or ended. Contracts already initiated or concluded via the Platform between companies and recruiters remain unaffected by this.

(6) For paid subscriptions concluded by you as a recruiter, the terms and notice periods set out in the respective pricing plan apply in addition. In case of doubt, the provisions set out in the pricing plan take precedence over the general provisions of this section.

(7) Companies can invite other people from their company as team members. Team members act on the Platform on behalf of the company; the company is responsible for their actions as for its own. Recruiters with a verified profile can invite other people from their agency as team members. Each team member uses their own access and only sees their own requests and candidate profiles; verification, the temporary staffing permit and the subscription apply through the account of the inviting recruiter, who is responsible for the actions of their team members as for their own. For each team member, the surcharge shown in the pricing plan applies during a paid subscription.

(8) Each access is personal. You may not pass on your login details to other people or let several people share your account. Every additional person needs their own access – as a team member under paragraph 7 or, for recruiters, as a separate account.

4. Services Provided by SilentHire

(1) SilentHire provides you with a technical platform on which searching companies can publish anonymized job openings and recruiters can propose matching candidates.

(2) Companies initially remain anonymous on the Platform. Only once a company accepts a proposed profile and the contact details are released does SilentHire send the contact details of the company and the recruiter to both parties by email. The candidate profile remains available in the request on the Platform and is not sent by email. Further communication and the conclusion of any contract take place outside the Platform, directly between the company and the recruiter.

(3) For each proposed profile, recruiters may state, for classic placements, a placement fee as a percentage of the target annual salary, or, for temporary staffing, a billing rate. This information is displayed transparently to the company.

(4) SilentHire itself does not owe a successful placement and does not become a party to any placement, service, or employment contracts between companies, recruiters, or candidates. In particular, SilentHire provides no guarantee regarding the qualification, availability, or suitability of candidates.

5. Use of the Platform, Prohibited Content and Misuse

(1) You may only use the Platform within the scope of its intended functionality and exclusively to initiate placement or recruiting processes.

(2) In particular, you are prohibited from using the Platform for:

• offering or advertising unlawful, immoral, or discriminatory positions or content,
• circumventing technical protection measures or other security precautions of the Platform,
• systematically extracting, storing, or further processing data of other users (e.g. scraping),
• spam, mass unsolicited outreach, or attempting to use the Platform for cold-calling outside the intended processes,
• any use intended to circumvent SilentHire's fees or business models.

(3) SilentHire is entitled to review content (e.g. job postings or profiles) and, in the event of violations, to block or remove it in whole or in part. There is no entitlement to the publication of specific content.

6. Obligations of Searching Companies (Employers)

If you use the Platform as a searching company, you undertake in particular to:

• only post genuine, currently open positions and provide information about the role and requirements profile that is correct and complete to the best of your knowledge,
• take into account that recruiters charge a fee for a successful placement or deployment (for classic placements, stated per profile as a percentage of the target annual salary; for temporary staffing, stated as a billing rate),
• in the event of a hire or deployment based on a profile proposed via SilentHire, pay the fee agreed with the recruiter (placement fee or billing rate) in full and on time — regardless of whether further exchange takes place via the Platform or directly by email/phone,
• not attempt to circumvent the agreed fee, for example by later hiring, deploying, or engaging a proposed candidate through other channels without involving the recruiter,
• not use the Platform to circumvent existing contracts with other service providers, and to comply with data protection and employment law requirements for sensitive placements,
• for a candidate profile proposed via SilentHire under the "temporary staffing" (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) category, request and review the recruiter's license for temporary staffing under § 1 AÜG (Erlaubnisurkunde) before entering into the staffing agreement.

Note: If the recruiter does not hold a valid license for temporary staffing, an employment relationship between you as the hiring company (Entleiher) and the deployed person may arise by operation of law under §§ 9, 10 AÜG; fines under § 16 AÜG may also apply to you as the hiring company. SilentHire requires recruiters who offer temporary staffing to submit proof of the license before this category is unlocked and checks it for plausibility. This check does not replace your own review as the hiring company; SilentHire gives no guarantee as to the existence and validity of the license (see clause 7).

7. Obligations of Recruiters

If you use the Platform as a recruiter, you undertake in particular to:

• only propose candidates to companies for whom a legitimate placement interest exists (e.g. a mandate, search assignment, or documented consent of the candidate),
• provide information about candidates carefully, truthfully, and in compliance with data protection law (in particular with valid consents and information obligations),
• specify a fee for each proposed profile — a placement fee as a percentage for classic placements, or a billing rate for temporary staffing — and ensure that this condition remains consistent towards the company going forward, unless expressly agreed otherwise,
• treat information received from companies via SilentHire as confidential and use it exclusively for the purpose of filling the respective position,
• when using the "temporary staffing" (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) category, hold a valid license for temporary staffing under § 1 AÜG, upload it as proof before using that category and inform SilentHire without delay if the license is revoked, withdrawn or not renewed. SilentHire checks the proof for plausibility but gives no guarantee as to the existence and validity of the license; responsibility for compliance with temporary staffing law lies entirely with the respective recruiter.

8. Client Protection and Prohibition of Circumvention

(1) You undertake not to use contacts obtained via SilentHire (companies, recruiters, candidates) with the specific intent of circumventing the Platform or any fee models of SilentHire.

(2) In particular, it is prohibited to systematically use contacts obtained via SilentHire outside the Platform to carry out identical or comparable placements that would typically run through SilentHire, solely for the purpose of circumvention.

(3) The specific structuring of compensation between the company and the recruiter is left to the parties. SilentHire is not a party to these fee agreements.

9. Fees and Payment Processing

(1) Use of the Platform is currently free of charge for you as a searching company. SilentHire reserves the right to introduce paid models in the future. You will be informed of this in good time.

(2) If you use the Platform as a recruiter, you may take out a paid subscription for access to the Platform or to certain features. The terms (e.g. monthly prices, contract terms) are presented transparently in the respective pricing plan.

(3) Payment processing between recruiters and companies (e.g. placement fees) generally takes place outside the Platform and is the sole responsibility of the respective contracting parties. SilentHire owes neither debt collection nor legal enforcement of these claims.

(4) To the extent a payment service provider (e.g. Stripe) is used for subscriptions or other services of SilentHire, the terms of that payment service provider apply in addition.

10. Liability of SilentHire

(1) SilentHire is liable to you without limitation:

• in cases of intent and gross negligence,
• for damages resulting from injury to life, body, or health,
• under the provisions of the German Product Liability Act,
• and in the event that a guarantee has been assumed, unless otherwise provided herein.

(2) In the event of slightly negligent breach of material contractual obligations (cardinal obligations), SilentHire is liable only for the typically foreseeable damage. Material contractual obligations are those whose fulfillment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance you may regularly rely.

(3) In all other respects, SilentHire's liability for cases of slight negligence is excluded.

(4) The above limitations of liability apply equally in favor of SilentHire's legal representatives and vicarious agents.

(5) Liability for indirect damages, loss of profit, unrealized savings, and other pure financial losses exists only in the cases set out in paragraph 1.

(6) SilentHire is not liable for content, promises, or breaches of contract between companies and recruiters, and provides no guarantee for the conclusion or performance of contracts between these parties.

11. Indemnification

You indemnify SilentHire against all claims that other users or third parties assert due to an infringement of their rights caused by your use of the Platform, by content you have posted (e.g. jobs, profiles, documents), or by other conduct of yours in connection with the Platform.

This indemnification also covers the necessary costs of legal defense (including court and legal fees at the statutory rate), to the extent you are responsible for the infringement. You are obligated to provide SilentHire, without delay and truthfully and completely, with all information required to assess the claims and to mount a defense, should a claim be made.

12. Availability and Maintenance

(1) SilentHire strives to ensure the Platform's availability is as uninterrupted as possible. However, there is no entitlement to a specific level of availability or to fault-free operation.

(2) Maintenance, security, or capacity considerations, as well as events outside SilentHire's control (e.g. disruptions to public communication networks), may lead to short-term impairments or interruptions in accessibility.

13. Changes to these T&Cs

(1) SilentHire reserves the right to amend these T&Cs at any time with effect for the future, provided there is a valid reason for doing so (e.g. adaptation to legal requirements, expansion or modification of platform features).

(2) You will be informed of changes to the T&Cs in an appropriate text form (e.g. by email or in-app notice) and made aware of the material content.

(3) The amended T&Cs only become effective for your existing usage relationship once you agree to them. If you do not wish to agree to the changes, SilentHire may terminate the usage agreement with reasonable notice.

14. Final Provisions

(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the conflict-of-laws rules of private international law.

(2) To the extent legally permissible, the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with these T&Cs and the use of the Platform is the registered seat of the operator of SilentHire. SilentHire remains entitled to also take action against you at your general place of jurisdiction.

(3) Should individual provisions of these T&Cs be or become invalid or unenforceable, in whole or in part, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected. In place of the invalid or unenforceable provision, the valid provision that comes closest to the economic purpose of the invalid provision shall be deemed agreed. The same applies accordingly to any gaps in these T&Cs.

Last updated: November 2026