Seller Disintermediation Policy

1. Purpose

Fleek's marketplace depends on transactions between buyers and sellers staying on the platform. Disintermediation means taking a relationship that started on Fleek off the platform to avoid fees. It takes business away from Fleek, removes the buyer protection that makes buyers trust sellers here, and undercuts every seller who follows the rules.

This policy explains what counts as disintermediation and what happens to a seller who signals, attempts or completes it.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all sellers on Fleek, in every country, across every channel Fleek provides: chat, offers, order notes and video calls. It also covers everything that physically reaches a buyer through Fleek, including shipments, packaging, labels and invoices.

Any relationship with a buyer who first connected with you through Fleek is covered. Transactions with that buyer must stay on Fleek indefinitely.

3. Key terms

4. Prohibited conduct

Each of the following is an off-platform signal and a violation on its own, whether or not a transaction follows:

1. Sharing or asking for phone numbers, WhatsApp, Telegram or WeChat handles, email addresses, or social media handles (Instagram, TikTok, etc.) in chat, offers, order notes or on a video call.
2. Sharing or asking for payment details (a bank account, IBAN, PayPal, Wise, Western Union, Remitly, Payoneer or any other way to pay outside Fleek checkout), or asking to be paid directly.
3. Putting your store name, website, social handle or contact details on packaging, labels, invoices, receipts or anything inside a shipment, including business cards, flyers, QR codes and "buy direct" inserts.
4. Inviting, proposing or discussing an off-platform deal, including coded language ("DM me", "you know where to find me") or contact details written with spaces or symbols.
5. Completing, attempting or negotiating a transaction outside Fleek with a buyer you met through Fleek, at any time.

5. Penalties

Both parties in an exchange are actioned, whoever started it. If a buyer proposes going off-platform and you accept, you are actioned just as if you had proposed it. The only exceptions are a seller who reports the exchange or refuses the request (Section 10).

There is no warning stage. The first confirmed off-platform signal draws the full penalty. How long you have been selling and how many orders you have do not change the outcome. Every flag is reviewed by a person before any action is taken.

A managed seller always receives the 5-day suspension on a first signal, whatever their sales. The £2,000 threshold applies only to non-managed sellers.

You will receive an enforcement notice in-app and by email. It states the violation, the evidence reference and the penalty. If you are suspended, it also gives your reinstatement date and the conditions in Section 8.

6. Payout holds

• When enforcement action is taken, your payouts are held while the case is investigated, for a maximum of 10 days per investigation.
• If the violation is confirmed, the disintermediation fee (Section 7) is deducted from the held funds.
• If you are cleared, held funds are released immediately and the case is closed with no record.
• If you are suspended, the hold ends when the investigation closes, not when the suspension ends. After the fee is deducted, your remaining balance is paid on your normal payout schedule, even while your store is suspended.
• Orders already in progress when your store is shut down must still be fulfilled. Fleek may complete or cancel them. Payouts on orders you fulfil normally are not forfeited.

7. Disintermediation fee

A seller who is suspended or banned for disintermediation pays a disintermediation fee. It covers the commission Fleek loses when a relationship is taken off the platform.

• Fee = 50% of your average weekly payout over the 12 weeks before the violation is captured (or over all available weeks if you have less than 12 weeks of payout history).
• Minimum: £375. Maximum: £1,875. The fee is set and charged in GBP only.
• The fee is the same whether the outcome is a suspension or a ban, and the same formula applies to every seller. It is charged once per confirmed violation, so a second violation after reinstatement is charged again.
• The fee is applied automatically on every confirmed violation. It cannot be waived, reduced or deferred by anyone at Fleek, including your KAM.
• The fee is deducted from your held payouts. If they do not cover it, the remaining amount is carried as a debt: it is deducted from future payouts on your account or any linked account, and it blocks reinstatement until it is paid.
• You are only charged if you started or accepted the off-platform exchange. A seller who refused a buyer's request is not charged.
• If a case is reversed because the flag was wrong, any fee already deducted is refunded to your payout within 10 days, your store is restored and the case is removed from your record.

8. Suspension and reinstatement

This section applies to managed sellers and to non-managed sellers with £2,000 or more in sales. A permanent ban has no reinstatement path.

• The suspension lasts 5 calendar days, starting on the day your store is taken offline.
• During the suspension your listings are hidden from search and browse, you cannot receive offers, quote requests or new orders, and you cannot message buyers.
• Your account, handle, listings, ratings and order history are kept. This is a suspension, not a deletion.
• Reinstatement is automatic on day 6 (the day your store is taken offline counts as day 1), provided that: (a) the disintermediation fee is paid in full, whether from your payouts or by direct payment, (b) you did not trade through another account during the suspension, and (c) all orders open at the start of the suspension are resolved.
• If any of these conditions is not met on day 6, your store stays offline until it is, and is reinstated on the day it is met.
• Your reinstatement notice restates this policy and your probation terms. You acknowledge it in-app the first time you log in after reinstatement. This does not delay your reinstatement.
• You then start a 90-day probation. Your conversations are prioritised for review. Any confirmed off-platform signal during or after probation is a permanent ban with no further reinstatement.
• Listings return as they were before the suspension. Search ranking, campaign placements and badges lost during the suspension are not restored.
• If the fee is still unpaid 90 days after the suspension was due to end, the suspension becomes a permanent ban.

9. Linked accounts and ban evasion

• Linked accounts are one seller. A suspension or ban on one account applies to every linked account at the same time, including stores with no listings.
• Managed status and sales are assessed across all linked accounts together. A KAM on one store does not extend managed treatment to other stores run by the same seller.
• Trading through a second handle, a related account or another seller's store during a suspension forfeits reinstatement. The suspension becomes a permanent ban on both the original and the other account, with no appeal.
• An account created by a suspended or banned seller is closed as soon as it is found, without a new review, and any suspension on the original account becomes a permanent ban.

10. Reporting and refusing

• Reporting: if a buyer asks you to go off-platform, report it through the in-app report option or Seller Support. If you report it before Fleek detects it, and you did not share, accept or act on any contact or payment details, you receive immunity for that exchange.
• Refusing is not a violation: if you decline the request, ignore it, or bring the conversation back onto Fleek, you are not penalised; the party who made the request is. Refusing is not the same as reporting, so it does not give you immunity for any later exchange.
• For every confirmed case, the reviewer records who started the exchange and who accepted it. A penalty applied to the wrong party is reversed.

The safest response to any off-platform request is to decline it and report it.

11. Appeals

• You can submit one appeal per enforcement action, within 7 days of being notified, through Seller Support.
• Seller Support reviews your appeal and takes action within 3 days, either reversing the action or upholding it.
• The suspension continues while your appeal is reviewed. If your appeal succeeds, your store is reinstated immediately, the payout hold is released and the fee is refunded. If it is unsuccessful, your original reinstatement date does not change, so appealing never adds days to your suspension.
• Appeals are decided on the evidence in the case. Your sales, your commercial relationship with Fleek or the inconvenience of the penalty are not grounds for an appeal.
• There is no reinstatement on request outside the appeal process, including through your KAM or a support agent.
• The appeal decision is final.

Seller Commitment

By selling on Fleek, you agree to:

• Conduct all communication and transactions through official Fleek channels.
• Follow this policy to help keep the marketplace trusted, safe, and fair for everyone.

Fleek Seller Support

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