Policy
Trading on Made in Africa vs. off-platform
You are free to communicate with buyers however you choose. Three things only apply to trades arranged through Made in Africa:
- Verification checks on the supplier’s registration and supporting documents
- A written dispute record worked on published timelines — the platform holds no funds
- Verified transaction history, which improves your ranking and unlocks higher verification tiers
Payment protection is not part of that list yet: escrow is not live, so no trade here is backed by platform-held funds. Trades arranged and paid for outside the platform are not covered by any of the above. We do not prohibit off-platform contact — we simply cannot document what we cannot see.
What we do not do
- We do not inspect, intercept or redact phone numbers and email addresses in your messages. You may share direct contact details at any time.
- We do not charge fines for off-platform contact.
- We do not demote, suspend or remove a supplier because of a single report, and no consequence is applied automatically by software.
Enforcement ladder — draft, pending legal review
The ladder below is published for transparency only. It is not in force: it will be activated once our terms of service have been reviewed by a South African lawyer and confirmed to give us contractual standing to demote or suspend on these grounds.
| Step | Trigger | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First evidenced report of a supplier redirecting an active on-platform enquiry to off-platform payment | Advisory email and policy reminder. |
| 2 | Second evidenced report within 12 months | Temporary removal from the Verified tier for 30 days and ranking demotion. |
| 3 | Third evidenced report | Suspension of escrow eligibility and a profile flag noting an off-platform trade report. |
| 4 | A pattern of fraud reports | Account suspension pending human review. |
No monetary fines are applied at any step. Ranking, badge and escrow-eligibility consequences are used instead.
How we measure circumvention
We compare contact reveals and website visits against enquiries sent, per supplier. A high ratio with little enquiry volume tells us where buyers are taking details elsewhere. These are review signals for our trade desk, not findings, and they never trigger an automatic sanction.