Review & Messaging Policy

1. Principles

• Registry data is the trust anchor. Reviews describe a working relationship; they never change a company’s certifications or its coverage score.
• Buyers are never public. Buyer briefs and identities are private unless the buyer chooses to reveal them.
• Everything that a company enters itself is labelled “Provided by the company”.

2. Who can review

A review can only be written after an interaction that both sides have confirmed on the platform: the buyer and the supplier each confirm that they worked together. One review per party per confirmed interaction.

3. How reviews are collected and checked

• Blind reveal: neither side sees the other’s review until both have submitted, or until the review window closes.
• Reviews rate four dimensions: product quality, on-time delivery, communication, and accuracy of compliance documents. A short written comment is optional.
• Reviews must be based on your own first-hand experience of that interaction.
• How we verify reviews: every review is linked to an interaction that both the buyer and the supplier confirmed on the platform, from verified accounts. We do not accept reviews from anyone else, so every published review comes from someone who actually dealt with the company.
• We publish all reviews that meet this policy, positive and negative, in date order. We do not let companies pay to remove, hide or reorder reviews, and we never write, buy or commission reviews ourselves.

4. What is not allowed

• Fake reviews, and reviews that are paid for, incentivised, written by a competitor, or about a company you are connected to. Offering or accepting anything in return for a review is also not allowed.
• Reviewing your own company, a company in the same group (for example a parent, subsidiary or sister company), or a company you have no confirmed interaction with. A company that buys as well as sells follows exactly the same rules for reviews written while buying.
• Personal attacks, discriminatory or abusive language, threats, or disclosure of anyone’s personal data.
• Confidential information such as prices, contract terms or trade secrets that the other party has not agreed to share.
• Allegations of crime or certification fraud stated as fact without evidence. Report suspected certificate fraud to the issuing body and to us instead.
• The use of AI-generated reviews, automated review-writing services, review farms, coordinated review campaigns or review manipulation services is prohibited.

5. Replies, reports and disputes

• The reviewed company may post one public reply to each review.
• Anyone can report a review or reply that breaks this policy. Either party can dispute a review and provide evidence.
• Our moderators review reports and may hide, edit out personal data from, or remove content that breaks this policy, and may suspend accounts that repeatedly do so. We tell both parties the outcome.
• We do not remove reviews just because they are negative.

6. Reporting illegal content (EU and UK)

Anyone can tell us about content on Integrity Thread that they believe is illegal, including reviews, replies, messages, company submissions and profile information. Send your notice to info@integritythread.com with the subject “Illegal content report”, and include:

• why you believe the content is illegal;
• the exact location of the content (the link to the page, and which review or message);
• your name and email address (not needed if the report concerns child sexual abuse material);
• a statement that you believe in good faith that the information in your notice is accurate and complete.

We confirm receipt, review the notice promptly, diligently and objectively, and tell you what we decided and whether automated tools were involved. Where we have reason to suspect a criminal offence involving a threat to someone’s life or safety, we inform the competent authorities.

This is also our single point of contact for users and for authorities under the EU Digital Services Act (Art. 11–12). You can write to us in English.

We will not penalize users solely because a report is ultimately determined to be incorrect, provided the report was submitted in good faith.

6A. Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on the platform infringes your copyright, contact:

info@integritythread.com

Please include:

• identification of the copyrighted work;
• the location of the allegedly infringing content;
• your contact information;
• a statement made in good faith that the use is unauthorized;
• a statement that the information provided is accurate.

We may remove or disable access to content while investigating.

7. Our decisions and how to appeal

• If we remove or restrict your content, suspend or end your account, or remove a “Verified owner” mark, we tell you which content or account is affected, what we did, the facts and the rule or law we relied on, and whether the decision was automated (statement of reasons).
• You can appeal any such decision, and any decision we take on a notice you sent, within 6 months by writing to info@integritythread.com with the subject “Appeal”. A different person from the one who took the original decision reviews it, and we reverse decisions that turn out to be wrong.
• You keep the right to go to court, and in the EU you may also use an out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under the Digital Services Act.
• We act against accounts that frequently post clearly illegal content or frequently send clearly unfounded notices, after a warning.

8. Messaging

• Contact between buyers and suppliers about sourcing briefs happens on the platform only.
• A brief is shown only to claimed, verified suppliers that meet its compliance requirements, and only those suppliers can respond to it.
• The number of responses per brief is capped. A free quota applies; further responses may require credits.
• Buyers can stay anonymous and decide when to reveal their identity. Suppliers must not try to identify an anonymous buyer by other means.
• Factories can post briefs as buyers too. A brief posted by a factory is never shown to that factory itself or to companies in its group, and factory buyers are anonymous by default, like every buyer.
• Messages must relate to a genuine business enquiry. Spam, bulk outreach, phishing, and requests to move payments off-platform to unverified accounts are not allowed.

Users must not:

• distribute malware;
• distribute harmful code;
• send phishing links;
• attempt credential harvesting;
• transmit executable files intended to compromise systems.

8A. Record Retention

Review records, moderation records and message records may be retained after account closure where reasonably necessary for:

• legal compliance;
• fraud prevention;
• dispute resolution;
• platform security;
• enforcement of policies.

Integrity Thread does not verify whether a commercial transaction ultimately occurred, whether payment was made, whether goods were delivered or whether contractual obligations were fulfilled.

Reviews represent the views of the reviewing party and not the views of Integrity Thread.

Integrity Thread is not obligated to monitor all reviews, messages or other user-generated content and does not guarantee that all policy violations will be detected or prevented.

The existence of moderation measures does not create a duty to monitor all platform activity.

9. Enforcement

Breaking this policy can lead to content removal, loss of the “Verified owner” mark, or suspension of the account. Questions: info@integritythread.com. Appeals: see section 7.

Users agree to cooperate reasonably with investigations relating to suspected policy violations, including providing information reasonably necessary to verify interactions, reviews or messages.

This Policy forms part of the Integrity Thread Terms of Use. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Terms of Use.