Frequently Asked Questions

An ethics complaint is a complaint filed against a company for violating one or more articles of Tradeloop's Code of Ethics.

You can file an ethics complaint by completing the Ethics Complaint Form.

Any Tradeloop Member can file an Ethics Complaint.

Members may file complaints against other Members of Tradeloop and non-member of Tradeloop. (Tradeloop does not have jurisdiction over non-member. However, if a non-member is willing to abide by the Code and participate in these proceedings, the Ethics Committee, at its discretion, may process the complaint.)

If you think the Tradeloop community needs immediate notification about someone who may be trying to defraud members, you may ask the Tradeloop Ethics Committee to approve a Fast Track Fraud Alert.

Tradeloop and the Ethics Committee will warn Members of problems with non-payment, but will not act as a collection agency. Your company must have shown due diligence in pursuing the debt, and must have written off the debt as uncollectable per generally accepted accounting procedures before Tradeloop will pursue the case.

Tradeloop will not hear the case if one party is suing the other. However the statement "I'm suing the other party over this" cannot be used to prevent a case from being heard without written documentation to support this claim.

Once Tradeloop receives your complaint and all necessary documentation, the Ethics Committee will process the complaint, ask for any necessary clarifications, and then send a copy of the complaint via email to the Defendant seeking a response. The defendant then has 7 days to respond via the case blog. See How it Works for more information about our blog-based dispute resolution process.

You must supply a copy of any document mentioned in the complaint. Without proper documentation Tradeloop will either refuse to hear the case, or inform the committee that you refused to provide documentation to support your claims. Examples of required documents: bill of sale, purchase order, shipping receipts, pictures of damaged or wrong goods, copies of legal notices, copy of police reports.

The announcement of an ethics violation against your company to the Tradeloop community should be taken seriously. Most defendants are not represented by an attorney, however, it is your right to do so.

To complete the ethics process, it take approximately 2-3 weeks, depending on the case complexity.

Tradeloop's Ethics Committee Members are Wholesale Members of Tradeloop who review and vote on ethics cases sent to them by Tradeloop.

When the committee members vote on a case, they have 4 options which they can choose for the defendant:

1. Take no action.
   Tradeloop takes no action against the defendant at this time.
   
   
2. Send a private written warning to the defendant.
   Tradeloop sends a written warning to the defendant letting them know they are in violation of Tradeloop's Ethics Code policy.
   
   
3. Post and Broadcast the complaint to the Tradeloop community.
   Tradeloop sends a written warning to the defendant, the complaint then gets posted to the defendant's account page, posted on the Posted Ethics Cases page and also Broadcast to all Tradeloop Members.
   
   
4. Post and Broadcast the complaint, and Ban the defendant from Tradeloop.
   Tradeloop sends a written warning to the defendant, the complaint then gets posted to the defendant's account page, posted on the Posted Ethics Cases page, Broadcast to all Tradeloop Members and Banned from Tradeloop.

To join the Ethics Committee click here.

Eligibilty & Requirements

• Your company must have been a Wholesale Member on Tradeloop for over a year.
• Your company cannot have any posted complaints against it.
• You must maintain the confidentiality of ethics cases.
• Ethics Committee Members must vote on all cases within 7 days of posting the Complaint and Response to the Committee.

If the person is specifically named in the case then the name will remain posted. If the person is just an employee, and not the named party it should not. In between cases is a grey area for the Committee to discuss. Request removal inside of your Ethics Case.