Terms of Use

1. Who we are, and what this covers

Sooqban is operated by the company named at the end of this document, registered in the Sultanate of Oman. These terms cover the website, the account behind it, and every service reached through it.

Some services have their own terms as well — supplying through the platform, paying through it, and what happens to an order. Where a service's own terms say something more specific, those apply to that service and these continue to apply to everything else.

2. What Sooqban is, and what it is not

Sooqban is a marketplace and a verification platform. It introduces businesses to each other and publishes evidence about who they are.

Sooqban is never a party to a trade between two users. It does not buy, sell, ship, insure, lend, advise, arrange, underwrite, or hold anyone's money. Any contract you reach with another user is between you and them, and its terms are yours to agree and yours to enforce.

• No contract between users is made by Sooqban or on its behalf.
• Sooqban's own entity does not hold customer funds at any stage.
• On a financing or insurance matter, no fee may ever be computed from the value of the deal.
• The platform stores and transmits trade documents. It never issues or certifies one.

3. Who may use it

Anyone, anywhere, may read Sooqban. Registering a business is available in Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

If you register from outside those countries your account is held rather than refused: you can ask for it to be reviewed by a person, and you are told the outcome with a reason either way.

You must be legally able to act for the business you register, and old enough to enter a contract where you are. An account is for a business, not for a consumer purchase.

4. Your account

Nothing you type exists before your email address is proven. That is deliberate: it stops anyone claiming an address they do not control.

You are responsible for what happens under your account. Choose a password that is not reused, turn on the second factor if it is offered to you, and tell us if you think someone else has access. Sessions can be ended from your account, and ending them ends them everywhere.

We may end a session, require the second factor, or ask you to prove your address again where there is a security reason to.

5. Your company, and the people in it

A company exists once on Sooqban. People are members of it with a role, and what someone can do follows from that role rather than from who invited them.

The last owner of a company cannot be removed — otherwise a company would be left with nobody who can act for it.

You confirm that what you enter about the company is true, and that you may enter it. Registration numbers, licences and certificates are checked against the authority that issued them, not taken at face value.

6. Verification, and what a mark means

A verification mark states what was checked, who checked it, against which standard, when, and when it stops being current. The on-site points come from an accredited inspection firm that visited; the documentary points come from Sooqban, from evidence it verified; and the two are always shown apart.

The audit report behind a mark is published in full, free, at its own address — including what was not awarded and why. Applying for an audit is agreeing to that publication.

A mark is not a recommendation, a guarantee of performance, or a promise about any particular order. It is a record of what was found on a date. Nothing on this platform is listed or can act before it has been verified.

7. What you publish here

You keep ownership of what you upload. You give Sooqban permission to host, store, display and format it as far as running and promoting the platform requires — and no further.

What you publish must be accurate and yours to publish. Misrepresenting a company, a certificate, a capability or an identity is a breach of these terms and of the Community Guidelines, which apply in full.

8. Suspension and ending an account

We may restrict, suspend or end an account where there is a breach of these terms, a legal requirement, a screening result that requires it, or a risk to other users.

Where we act, you are told the reason. Where a decision can be reviewed, you are told how to ask. A compliance block is the exception that only compliance can lift, and a complaint by another user never removes a listing by itself.

You can stop using Sooqban at any time. Some records outlive an account because the law requires it — the consent you gave, and the audit trail behind a verification, are the clearest examples.

9. Availability

The platform is provided as it is. It is not promised to be uninterrupted or error-free, and parts of it are explicitly under development — those are labelled where they appear.

We may change, suspend or withdraw a feature. Where a change affects something you rely on, we will say so rather than let you discover it.

10. Responsibility

Goods, services, quotes and claims come from the businesses that publish them, and they are responsible for them. Sooqban is responsible for the platform and for the verification work it performs.

To the extent the law allows, Sooqban is not liable for a contract you make with another user, for what a counterparty does, or for losses that are indirect. Nothing here removes a right that cannot lawfully be removed.

11. Changes to these terms

These terms carry a version and a date. A change of wording is a new version, not an edit to this one.

Where a new version changes something material, you are asked to accept it before continuing to use the account — and until you do, you can still read the documents, sign out, or ask for your account to be deleted.

12. Law

These terms are governed by the law of the Sultanate of Oman, and by any mandatory law of the place where you are that cannot be excluded.