Prohibited Seller Activities & Consequences
Created on Sept 10, 2017
POLICY FOR PROHIBITED SELLER ACTIVITIES AND CONSEQUENCES
Table of Contents
- Prohibited seller activities
- Website Disruption Clause
- Vendor Name Clause
- Hyperlinks Clause
- Deceptive Title Clause
- Abuse and Threat Clause
- Search Guidelines Clause
- Profanity Clause
- Guideline for Packaging
- Consequences of Breach
Introduction:
This PROHIBITED SELLER ACTIVITIES AND CONSEQUENCES POLICY (“Policy”) provides certain prohibited activities that Seller shall not engage into when using the Website or any other services and forms an integral part of the SELLER AGREEMENT executed between Seller and M/S GETIT E-Commerce Company W.L.L (“GETIT.QA”). Unless specifically provided for supersession, this Policy shall not supersede the Seller Agreement and for any conflict between Policy and Seller Agreement, the terms of Seller Agreement, to the extent of such conflict, shall prevail over this Policy. For the avoidance of doubt, this Policy is in addition to the restrictions and prohibitions with respect to Banned Products guidelines as contained in the Seller Agreement.
1. Prohibited seller activities
Sl No. |
Prohibited activities |
Examples (for explanation only. This is only an indicative list, and not exhaustive list) |
01 |
Advertising, exhibiting, representing, publishing, pronouncing, listing, delivering, exposing for sale, offering to sell or selling counterfeit/ fake products and/or engaging in any kind of infringement or disparagement of intellectual property rights |
Listing product under: 'brand' with the 'brand name' in product description or image displayed 'local brand' but with the 'brand name' in product description & brand name/ logo on image displayed 'local brand' with the 'local brand name' in product description but brand name/ logo on image displayed Imitation 'brand' (like misspelled, same sounding names etc.) Any other scenario of counterfeit product being listed and/or sold to customer Including brand names in a title or description for the purpose of gaining attention or diverting users to a listing Including any brand name or company logo in their listing other than the specific brand name used by the company that has manufactured or produced the item Using similar logos of any registered or unregistered brand |
02
|
Inadequate/incomplete documents |
Non-submission or submission of fake invoices or brand authorization certificate or any other document required as per the compliance related to the products listed by the seller |
03 |
Offering to sell or selling above MRP or/ and, any kind of misrepresentation of MRP |
Mentioning the price above MRP on website. Product actual/printed MRP: QAR. 1000 Offer price on GETIT.QA: QAR. 1200 Charging the buyer more than the MRP mentioned on the label of the product. Charging an additional fee by Seller to Buyer for sale of goods in the form of taxes over and above the MRP (MRP mentioned is all inclusive of taxes). Hiding (Not mentioning, removing, tempering, altering, rewriting) the MRP declaration from the product. Further, hiding any offer of freebies, additional quantity, cash back or any other offer shall be under same category. Labels without mandatory declarations as prescribed by applicable laws. Displaying incorrect MRP on GETIT.QA website: Product actual/ printed MRP: QAR. 1000/- Offer price on GETIT.QA: QAR. 900/- MRP displayed on GETIT.QA: QAR. 2000/- |
04 |
Offering to sell the same product on different channel(s) with less price than GETIT.QA |
Seller cannot offer the same product listed in GETIT.QA, with less price to any other channels (such as, own retail/online shops/ or any other marketplace, etc). |
05 |
Offering to sell or selling 'Not for sale' products |
Promotional samples, freebies, Free of Cost (FOC), expired products or near expiry products etc. |
06 |
Selling products with 'warranty' not applicable in Qatar |
Claiming or offering international warranty which excludes Qatar or not covered/applicable in Qatar |
07 |
Advertising, exhibiting, publishing, representing, listing, delivering, exposing for sale, offering to sell or selling products which are banned as per “Banned Product Guideline” from Qatar Ministry including illegal or prohibited products as per Applicable Laws or regulated products without license(s) from proper authority(s). |
Hazardous materials Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Prescription Medicines, Drugs and the products/ service which is hurting the religious sentiments |
08 |
Offering to sell or selling expired FMCG products or product containing prohibited/ restricted material under law in force. |
Offering to sell or selling any product which has reached/passed 75% or more of its shelf life/expiry duration |
09 |
Seller or any one, acting on behalf of Seller is involved in buying the product(s) listed by the Seller itself. |
Seller A with a listed product named “iPhone 7”, is involved directly or indirectly in buying “iPhone 7” from itself Seller A with a listed product named “iPhone 7”, is involved directly or indirectly in buying “iPhone 7” from any other seller B |
10 |
Misrepresenting seller's identity by non-submission or submission of fake/ forged/ invalid documents like CR/Computer Cared/Municipal License/ Tax Card/Bank A/c or any other document related to seller's identity |
Non -submission of Tax Card, Submission of inactive/expired CR/Computer Card/Municipal License/Tax Card/Bank A/c or not informing GETIT.QA about Cancellation/Change of de- activation of his/her registration |
11 |
Indulging directly or indirectly in sale/ purchase/ cancellations/ returns or any other activity to: Manipulate its own or other seller's rating To restrict competition To fulfill any other malafide intention To engage in Bulk Buying/Selling activities to create abusive arbitrage of any kind & mis-declare this as self-consumption. |
|
12 |
Inferior quality products/ Some other product/ Used Product/ Empty Parcels (in case reasonably proven) |
Inferior quality phone found instead of branded phone A used/washed cloth Shirt found instead of watch No product (or partially/completely missing, etc.) found in the package |
13 |
Any other unethical/ unlawful activity affecting the goodwill and reputation of GETIT.QA or its users. |
Disparagement of GETIT.QA brand or its subsidiaries or its services |
2. Website Disruption Clause
Interference, attempted interference or threatened interference with the Website / Mobile apps and/or operations using any software program, routine or activity is a serious offence and is strictly prohibited.
All content must also abide by Seller Agreement & all other agreements entered into / with GETIT.QA and GETIT.QA’s policies. In no case should a seller block, obscure, overwrite or modify any GETIT.QA generated content or pages.
All other site locations or components of GETIT.QA’s webpages are strictly for GETIT.QA’s use. GETIT.QA shall have the rights to initiate actions under all applicable laws against any such activity. Additionally, Seller agrees not to:
- Collect personal data about other users of the Website for commercial or unlawful purposes;
- Use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, Trojan / viruses, data mining tools, or the like to download data from the Service
- Post non-local or otherwise irrelevant Content, repeatedly post the same or similar Content, or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
- Attempt to gain unauthorized access to GETIT.QA's computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of, the Service or the GETIT.QA website.
A display (vendor) name is a unique name that sellers use to identify themselves on the Website.
Further, GETIT.QA may, at its sole discretion, disallow certain words and phrases (including combinations and grammatical variations thereof) from being used as display (vendor) names. Seller(s) shall not be permitted to use GETIT.QA and any other trademarks or logos (including combinations and grammatical variations of such words) which are proprietary to GETIT.QA.
4. Hyperlinks Clause
The Website listing page can only be used to describe, promote and facilitate the sale of the listed GETIT.QA items. The page cannot refer to or promote any other Webpage including seller's individual website or product’s brand owner website, off-GETIT.QA sales, or other businesses.
Item Page cannot contain any URLs, links to, or promotional information about any off-GETIT.QA webpage, including the websites of a seller or any third party. Links from the Website’s item page that interfere in any way with the shopping experience on the Website or solicit any GETIT.QA user information, are not allowed. Links from the Website’s item page to pages that promote off-GETIT.QA sales in any way are forbidden.
Seller Page: This page may be used to describe a seller's business and may not contain URLs or links to the seller's individual website. It may not specifically promote off-GETIT.QA sales or sales of items prohibited on GETIT.QA nor may it contain links to commercial websites where products from multiple sellers are aggregated by a common search engine.
Listing techniques that circumvent GETIT.QA's fee structure. Sellers may not use systems or techniques to circumvent GETIT.QA’s fees. Some examples include:
- Offering in a listing, the opportunity to purchase the item or other merchandise outside the Website;
- Listing with low prices but unreasonably high shipping or handling costs;
- Listing an item that requires or offers an additional purchase;
- Listing with an email address or domain name in the title;
- Offering items for sale in a manner that circumvents GETIT.QA’s fees;
Listings that circumvent GETIT.QA’s fees are not permitted and will be ended.
5. Deceptive Title Clause
Seller’s title should accurately describe only the actual item/list for sale.
Following are the few illustrations, where the title shall be considered as misleading:
- Listing/title contains a word or phrase that does not belong to the item listed/offered for sale;
- Not mentioning/wrongful mentioning of the common name/generic name of the product; that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, mis-informative, or constitutes "bait and switch";
- Any claim with title which is prohibited under applicable Qatar laws;
- If by Title a buyer is unable to identify the item that has been listed/offered for sale; and that constitutes or contains “affiliate marketing,” “link referral code,” “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or unsolicited commercial advertisement;
6. Abuse and Threat Clause
Although GETIT.QA is not regulating any private communication including email correspondence, as a policy, GETIT.QA will investigate and can take action on certain types of unwanted emails or any case similar to the following gets reported
- Threats of bodily harm – GETIT.QA does not permit users to send explicit threats of bodily harm.
- Any material that is unlawful, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, blasphemous, misleading, defamatory, libelous, offensive, derogatory, threatening, harassing, abusive racial, sexually oriented, against national interest or violent content or illegal or unlawful or invasive of another person’s rights, or that GETIT.QA may reasonably deem harmful, vulgar, obscene, derogatory, pornographic, abusive, harassing, threatening, hateful, objectionable with respect to race, religion, creed, national origin or gender, or otherwise unfit for the purpose of communication;
- Any material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless Seller is the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material;
- that impersonates any person or entity, including, but not limited to, an GETIT.QA employee, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity;
- that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person’s explicit consent;
- that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation if (1) posted in areas or categories of the GETIT.QA sites which are not designated for such purposes; or (2) emailed to GETIT.QA users who have requested not to be contacted about other services, products or commercial interests;
- that includes links to commercial services or web sites, except as specifically allowed by GETIT.QA
- that advertises any illegal services or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by applicable Qatar laws, including without limitation items, the sale of which is prohibited or regulated by any Laws;
- that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
- that employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of Content transmitte
Additionally, Seller agrees not to contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted, “stalk” or otherwise harass anyone;
Seller is not allowed to send spam messages to other sellers/buyers or to GETIT.QA.
Offers to buy or sell outside the Website – GETIT.QA prohibits email offers to buy or sell listed items outside the Website. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk to both sellers and buyers.
7. Search Guidance Clause
Search manipulation is any practice that results in searches on the Website returning irrelevant listings or that otherwise inhibit a User's ability to accurately locate specific items. This violation generally consists of the use of brand name or some inappropriate ‘keywords’ for diverting users or gaining attention to a listing. It shall be a violation of GETIT.QA’s Policy and apart from GETIT.QA’s other rights and remedies, may result in removal of listing or suspension of account.
Following are certain examples of search manipulation for better understanding of sellers:
- Including brand names or some inappropriate ‘keywords’ in a title or description diverting users or gaining attention to a listing.
- All words used to describe an item, whether in the title, description of the item page, or any other way that may be found using search, must be strictly related to the item being sold.
- Sellers shall not be permitted to include hidden text (for example ‘white on white’) or source tags (meta or header tags). Keywords ‘hidden’ within the title, description, or through other means are not allowed. Such deliberate attempts may result in account suspension without prior warning.
- Sellers shall not include any brand name or company logo in their listing other than the specific brand name used by the company that has manufactured or produced the item. Certain uses of brand names may also constitute trademark infringement and could expose seller to legal liability. Sellers are permitted to use third-party company logos only if they have the license or permission to use such logos.
- Misleading Titles – Sellers should make sure that their title accurately describes only the actual item or items they offer on sale. If the title contains a word or phrase that does not seem to belong to the item(s), it should not be included in the description
8. Profanity Clause
GETIT.QA prohibits the use of language that is unlawful, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, blasphemous, misleading, defamatory, libelous, offensive, derogatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, racial, sexually oriented, against national interest, violent, illegal or unlawful or invasive of another person's rights (“Profane words”).
This policy extends to texts within listings, seller pages, and all other areas of the Website that other users may view.
No profane word is allowed to be mentioned anywhere on the website. Still however, if the profane words are part of a Product Title for the item being sold, Sellers are advised to delist all such products.
Some examples of violations are listed below for review:
- Offensive display names
- Offensive language in a listing or otherwise
- If a feedback comment or any communication made among users on the Website, or an email communication between sellers and buyers in relation to transactions conducted on the Website contains profanity
Subject to and in addition to the remedies available under applicable laws and consequences as per Seller Agreement, Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including but not limited to cancellation of listings and/or temporary/ permanent suspension of account. Further, GETIT.QA will not bear any responsibility for the legal repercussions faced by seller for violating the applicable laws.
9. Guideline for Packaging
GETIT.QA prohibits the use of competitor’s packaging or wrapping material or any other non-standard packaging or wrapping material for fulfilling orders of Sellers on GETIT.QA.
Sellers shall use only GETIT.QA standard wrapping materials for fulfilling orders on GETIT.QA.
Subject to and in addition to the remedies available under applicable laws and consequences as per Seller Agreement, violations of this policy may result in actions, including but not limited to cancellation of listings and/or temporary/ permanent suspension of account. Further, GETIT.QA will not bear any responsibility for the legal repercussions faced by Seller for violating the applicable laws.
10. Consequences of Breach
Seller understands that indulging in one or more prohibited activities as mentioned in this policy will cause great prejudice and harm to the reputation and goodwill of GETIT.QA. In addition to rights and/or remedies available to GETIT.QA under Seller Agreement, Applicable Law, tort or equity, in case of any breach of this Policy by the Seller, the Seller shall be liable for all the losses and/or damages including but not limited to all costs for assessment of such losses or damages, legal and settlement costs and any third party costs incurred by GETIT.QA. For avoidance of doubt, while assessing such losses and/or damages, GETIT.QA shall, in its sole reasonable opinion, take into consideration past transactions of such Seller. Seller agrees that the compensation for any such loss or damage or any costs, levies etc. as determined by GETIT.QA is reasonable, final and binding on the Seller.
Seller agrees and understands that the above liability of payment is not a penalty. Seller also agrees that the above referred payments can be offset from any amount payable to Seller by GETIT.QA or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. In addition to above, GETIT.QA, at its sole discretion, also reserves the right to block or disable access of any or all the Products of the Seller and shall have the right to suspend or terminate (temporary or permanent) the Seller Agreement forthwith.
With reference to the above, Seller agrees that GETIT.QA, upon getting any information/complaint in this regard from any source whatsoever, shall have a right to investigate any such matter, at its sole discretion, and findings of such investigation shall be final and binding upon Seller and without prejudice to the above, GETIT.QA reserves the right to not entertain any representation made by the Seller beyond 7 days of levy of damages. Further, during the pendency of the investigation, GETIT.QA shall have a right to suspend the Seller account and withhold all the payments due to the Seller.
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