1) The object of this WATA guarantee is to cover unpaid invoice(s) for services between WATA members and other service suppliers with whom an agreement is signed. This WATA guarantee is established by the provision of a fund of Sfr.100,000. No claim(s) during any one year in total above this maximum sum will be considered. The points 2 and 7 underneath refer to the functioning of the guarantee for transactions between WATA members. Should a guarantee agreement be signed with non-WATA service suppliers, the functioning of it will be subject to special agreements worked out case by case.
2) In the case of any unpaid invoice(s) concerning tourist service(s) only (excluding all services referring to money handling such as exchange of currency, cash or traveller's cheques, loans and the like), by one WATA member to one or several other WATA members, WATA headquarters will guarantee the payment of unsettled invoice(s) to each WATA claiming credit up to a maximum amount of Sfr.5,000 per creditor, not exceeding Sfr.30,000 in total per any one case and subject to the conditions mentioned below.
3) Any WATA member holding outstanding invoices from another WATA member must notify WATA headquarters, by registered letter, fax or telex, within 120 days from the billing date - the billing must be effected at the latest at the end of the month following the date of the month in which the agency has rendered the service(s) - in order to be entitled to the benefits of this WATA guarantee. To determine if the 120-day period, which starts on the billing date, has been respected, the date of the postmark of the notification by registered letter or the day the fax or telex is sent, will be considered.
4) WATA will settle unpaid invoice(s) from one WATA member to one or more WATA members if the payment of such invoice(s) has not been effected by the WATA member nine months after the billing date.
5) WATA will only pay the invoice(s) covering tourist services supplied to the defaulting WATA member during a 120-day period starting from the date the first unpaid service was rendered.
Provided in all cases when a WATA agency notifies the WATA headquarters that a WATA agency has not settled one or several invoices for 120 days the WATA creditor must, in no case, render further services to the WATA debtor unless these services are fully prepaid.
If the WATA creditor does not observe these conditions, then the WATA guarantee is not applicable for the invoice(s) covering the services rendered after this period of 120 days.
6) After the nine-month period mentioned under item 4 has elapsed, WATA headquarters will settle the invoice(s) which is (are) in accordance with the stipulations of the guarantee to WATA creditors within 90 days. The payment effected by WATA is limited to Sfr.5,000 per WATA creditor (not exceeding Sfr.30,000 in total per any one case) and to a maximum of Sfr.100,000 in total in any one year.
7) No payment will be effected before WATA has received from the creditor a statement establishing that s/he renounces to all his rights regarding this credit, except that where the invoice(s) total more than Sfr15,000 any surplus eventually received by WATA headquarters will be refunded to the said WATA creditor. This document is needed by WATA Headquarters to recover the amount due, should the WATA debtor be able to effect payment of this sum at a later date.
8) The fund amount foreseen to cover this guarantee (Sfr.100,000) is represented in the WATA accounts by the payment(s) effected for this purpose by every member. Should payments have to be effected under this guarantee, the Executive Committee will decide at the end of the financial year whether these payments will be deducted from the yearly profit or from the reserves or from the guarantee deposit account. In the latter case, the Executive Committee will decide on the measures to be taken to restore the initial amount of the guarantee fund.
9) The Executive Committee has full powers for all matters concerning the WATA guarantee, including current evaluation of the amount of the available funds and their distribution should the total of the claims exceed the amount of the said funds. It will decide in case of payments effected under this guarantee if the guarantee capital left after these payments is sufficient or not to continue the guarantee. In case the funds left are not sufficient, it must immediately submit to the members, by a mail vote, proposals for the future of the guarantee.
10) Whenever the guarantee fund has been used because of a defaulting member, the Executive Committee shall terminate the membership of the defaulting member, except where special circumstances would make it necessary to examine whether the affiliation of the said member has to be maintained or not. In the first case, Article IV, letter c) of the Articles of Association will apply.
March 23, 1992
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