Ethically Speaking - June 2009

During the past month, the Tradeloop Ethics Committee banned one non-member company and issued two Fast Track Fraud Alerts in cases of identity theft and suspected fraud. Another Ethics complaint between two members was partially resolved and Broadcast to the community. The final Ethics complaint had a happier outcome. It was withdrawn after the parties involved were able to resolve the issue themselves.

In case #5031, Sally Nairn, TM Computer Services Ltd., a non-Tradeloop member company in the United Kingdom, was banned for failure to respond to a complaint alleging non-shipment of prepaid goods. Note that the defendant company was banned for non-response to the complaint. Without cooperation from both parties, the Ethics Committee can't evaluate evidence and render a decision.

The Fast Track Fraud alerts involved case #5033 and case #5034. We discussed these cases in detail in our May 27th blog post about fraud and identity theft. It contains some helpful hints about detecting fraud and reporting it to the Tradeloop community.

Case #5026 concerned a dispute between two Tradeloop members. During the discussion on the Ethics blog, the members managed to resolve several outstanding issues themselves. After reviewing the remaining issues still in dispute, the committee voted to broadcast the facts of the case, but not ban the defendant from Tradeloop.

In this case, as well as the complaint that was withdrawn, Tradeloop staffers worked with the complainants and defendants and help them resolve the dispute amicably. By facilitating communication between parties involved in disputes, our Ethics blog format encourages the parties to resolve the problem without a formal Ethics committee vote.

At Tradeloop, we don't view the Ethics complaint and resolution process as punitive. Instead, our staffers work to encourage dialogue and the friendly resolution of disputes.

Learn more about these and other Ethics cases - and about the Ethics process in general - at the Ethics area of the Tradeloop Web site.