Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Petroleum Directory website, platform, dashboards, directory, RFQ tools, messaging features, or related services (“Platform”), you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Platform.

If you use the Platform on behalf of a company, close corporation, partnership, trust, or other legal entity, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that entity to these Terms.

2. Nature of the Platform

Petroleum Directory is a South Africa-focused petroleum supplier directory and business lead platform. The Platform is designed to help verified suppliers and verified business buyers discover each other, exchange enquiries, submit requests for quotation, and communicate through safer in-platform channels.

Petroleum Directory is not the seller, reseller, transporter, distributor, broker of record, or buyer of any fuel or petroleum product listed or discussed on the Platform.

Petroleum Directory does not take ownership of products, does not fulfil orders, and does not process payments between users. Transactions, payment arrangements, delivery arrangements, and contractual commitments happen directly between users outside the Platform.

3. Eligibility

You may use the Platform only if:

• you are at least 18 years old;
• you have legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement;
• you are using the Platform for legitimate business purposes; and
• all information you submit is true, accurate, current, and complete.

The Platform is intended for business use, not personal consumer use.

4. User Categories

Petroleum Directory may allow access to different user categories, including:

• guests;
• suppliers;
• clients or buyers;
• administrators.

Access rights, visibility, and available actions differ by account type and verification status.

5. Account Registration

To access certain features, you must create an account. You agree to:

• provide accurate registration details;
• keep your login credentials confidential;
• notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your account; and
• remain responsible for all activity under your account.

We may require email verification, phone verification, or both as part of registration or account security.

6. Verification and Tiering

7. Directory Visibility Rules

Only suppliers approved at the relevant verified tiers are eligible to appear in the public directory. Pending or unverified suppliers are not publicly visible.

Petroleum Directory may decide how profiles are displayed, categorised, ranked, highlighted, or filtered, including by tier, geography, capability, relevance, completeness, recency, responsiveness, subscription status, or other platform factors.

8. RFQs, Messaging, and Contact Access

The Platform may allow users to:

• submit RFQs;
• send or receive in-platform messages;
• receive RFQ notifications by email; and
• view contact details where permitted.

Petroleum Directory may restrict these actions so that they are available only when both parties satisfy the required verification status.

You agree that:

• RFQs must be genuine business enquiries;
• you will not spam, harass, scrape, or misuse other users’ details;
• you will not send misleading, fraudulent, or unlawful requests; and
• all communications must remain professional and lawful.

Petroleum Directory may monitor metadata, moderation signals, complaint reports, and abuse patterns to protect the Platform.

9. No Guarantee of Product Quality, Delivery, or Performance

Petroleum Directory verifies documents and trust signals according to its internal policies. Verification does not mean Petroleum Directory guarantees the supplier, buyer, product quality, product availability, delivery performance, pricing, regulatory compliance in every instance, or fitness for any purpose. The verification policy expressly distinguishes document review from any guarantee of product performance.

Where a badge refers to “Verified” or “Verified + Quality”, it means relevant documentation has been reviewed according to Petroleum Directory’s policy at the time of review. It does not create a warranty by Petroleum Directory.

10. User Responsibilities

You must:

• provide truthful and non-misleading information;
• upload only documents you are authorised to submit;
• ensure documents are legible, valid, and not altered deceptively;
• comply with all laws, regulations, licences, and standards applicable to your business;
• conduct your own due diligence before contracting with another user; and
• keep your profile and supporting information up to date.

Suppliers are solely responsible for ensuring that they hold all licences, permits, authorisations, operational approvals, transport compliance documents, safety compliance documents, and other legal requirements applicable to their activities.

Clients are solely responsible for ensuring that their purchasing authority, site readiness, storage compliance, HSE arrangements, and operational needs are properly managed where relevant.

11. Prohibited Conduct

You may not:

• use the Platform for unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive, or harmful purposes;
• impersonate another person or business;
• upload forged, altered, stolen, or misleading documents;
• bypass verification controls or access controls;
• use bots, scraping tools, crawlers, or automated extraction methods without written permission;
• interfere with Platform security or functionality;
• reverse engineer or attempt unauthorised access;
• send spam or unsolicited bulk messages;
• misuse contact details obtained from the Platform; or
• post false claims about verification, accreditation, supply capability, delivery capacity, or product specification.

12. Listings, Badges, and Platform Content

Users are responsible for content they submit, including profile text, uploaded documents, contact details, service areas, claims, and marketing statements.

By submitting content to the Platform, you grant Petroleum Directory a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt, display, and publish that content for the purpose of operating, promoting, and improving the Platform.

You warrant that you have all rights needed to submit such content.

Petroleum Directory may edit, refuse, remove, suspend, or de-publish any listing or content that breaches these Terms, creates risk, attracts complaints, appears inaccurate, or is inconsistent with platform standards.

13. Verification Documents and Reviews

Users may be required to upload business and compliance documents for review. These may include business registration documents, proof of address, authority documents, banking proof, licences, lab reports, insurance, references, and related evidence depending on user type and tier.

Petroleum Directory may:

• review submitted documents;
• request more information;
• reject unclear or insufficient documents;
• assign a lower tier than requested;
• suspend or downgrade an account where documents expire or complaints arise; and
• keep an audit trail of review decisions.

14. Downgrades, Suspension, and Removal

Petroleum Directory may downgrade, suspend, hide, restrict, or terminate accounts, listings, or features where:

• required documents expire;
• required information is not provided;
• complaints are credible;
• documents appear altered, inconsistent, or unverifiable;
• fraud or misrepresentation is suspected;
• legal or compliance risk arises; or
• these Terms are breached.

A supplier that falls back to an unverified or pending status may be removed from public directory visibility and may lose transaction privileges.

15. Fees, Plans, and Subscriptions

The Platform may offer free and paid plans, subscriptions, enhanced visibility, or premium features for suppliers. Planned packaging in your business model includes tier-linked supplier subscriptions, but approval and verification remain separate from payment.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise:

• fees are non-refundable once billed;
• subscriptions renew according to the selected billing cycle;
• Petroleum Directory may change pricing on notice;
• unpaid accounts may lose access to paid features; and
• payment does not guarantee verification, ranking, lead volume, or commercial success.

A separate subscription policy, order form, or pricing page may apply to paid plans.

16. Intellectual Property

All Platform software, design, layout, branding, logos, text, graphics, workflows, and non-user content are owned by or licensed to Petroleum Directory.

Except as allowed by law or by these Terms, you may not copy, distribute, modify, sell, licence, or exploit any part of the Platform without prior written consent.

17. Privacy and Data Handling

Petroleum Directory collects and processes account data, profile data, communications data, and verification documents to operate the Platform, administer verification, enforce security, and support users.

Sensitive verification documents are intended to be stored privately and access-controlled rather than publicly exposed. Your architecture and security baseline requires private storage, signed URLs, role-based access controls, and auditability for sensitive documents.

Use of the Platform is also subject to the Petroleum Directory Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, once published.

18. Security

While Petroleum Directory implements reasonable technical and organisational safeguards, no internet platform can guarantee absolute security.

Users are responsible for safeguarding credentials, devices, internal access permissions, and the accuracy and safety of the data they submit.

Petroleum Directory may suspend access or require additional checks where suspicious activity is detected.

19. Third-Party Services

The Platform may rely on third-party services for hosting, content management, email delivery, authentication, analytics, and storage. Your MVP stack includes services such as Supabase, WordPress/WPGraphQL, Resend, and Vercel.

Petroleum Directory is not responsible for outages, failures, delays, or security incidents caused solely by third-party providers, except where required by law.

20. Disputes Between Users

Any commercial dispute, delivery dispute, quality dispute, payment dispute, or contractual disagreement between supplier and client is primarily between those parties.

Petroleum Directory may, but is not obliged to:

• receive complaints;
• request evidence;
• review available records;
• temporarily downgrade a supplier during investigation; or
• take platform moderation action where appropriate.

Petroleum Directory is not a party to the underlying sale, supply, transport, or payment agreement between users.

21. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available”.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Petroleum Directory makes no express or implied warranties regarding:

• uninterrupted availability;
• accuracy or completeness of listings;
• suitability of any supplier or client;
• product quality, specification, legality, or performance;
• commercial outcomes;
• delivery timelines;
• payment recovery; or
• freedom from third-party misconduct.

22. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, Petroleum Directory and its directors, employees, contractors, and affiliates will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or loss-of-profit damages arising from or related to:

• use of or inability to use the Platform;
• user misconduct;
• inaccurate listings or documents;
• failed transactions;
• product defects or contamination;
• non-delivery or delayed delivery;
• payment disputes;
• data loss;
• downtime; or
• suspension or removal of an account.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, Petroleum Directory’s total aggregate liability will be limited to the greater of:

• the fees paid by you to Petroleum Directory in the 3 months before the claim arose; or
• ZAR 5,000.

23. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Petroleum Directory, its affiliates, officers, staff, and service providers from claims, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses arising from:

• your use of the Platform;
• your breach of these Terms;
• your violation of law or third-party rights;
• false, misleading, or infringing content or documents submitted by you; or
• disputes between you and another user.

24. Termination

You may stop using the Platform at any time.

Petroleum Directory may suspend or terminate your access immediately, with or without notice, if:

• you breach these Terms;
• your account creates legal, compliance, fraud, or reputational risk;
• required verification fails or lapses; or
• the Platform or a service feature is discontinued.

Termination does not affect accrued rights, payment obligations, audit rights, or clauses that reasonably continue after termination.

25. Changes to the Platform or Terms

Petroleum Directory may update the Platform, workflows, verification requirements, features, fees, or these Terms from time to time.

Updated Terms become effective when published on the Platform, unless a later date is stated.

Continued use of the Platform after changes are published constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

26. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

Any dispute arising from or in connection with these Terms will be subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts, unless applicable law requires otherwise.