Evidenced
Based on a real commercial relationship your business can document.
Trust & safety
Every trade reference is evidenced, reviewed and anonymous. These are the rules that make that true: for reviewers, for the companies they review, and for the people who rely on the result.
Four principles
What a good trade reference looks like.
Reviews come from verified businesses, are backed by evidence, and stay anonymous. That only works if they're also fair.
Factual
Describes what happened (payment, delivery, quality, conduct), not opinions about people.
Anonymous
Contains nothing that could identify you, your colleagues or the other party's staff.
Professional
Measured, specific and useful to someone deciding whether to trade.
Writing a reference
Specific about the trade. Silent about the people.
Up to about 2,000 characters. We screen every review for identifying details and redact before publishing.
Publishable
“Payments were consistently made within agreed terms. Communication was responsive and documentation was handled professionally. One shipment was delayed at customs but the team kept us informed throughout.”
- Describes behaviour, not individuals
- Specific without being identifying
- Balanced and useful to a future counterparty
Needs redaction
“Our contact Jane Doe (jane.doe@meridian-cc.de) paid invoice INV-2025-00417 late. See meridian-coldchain.com/portal.”
We remove or block:
- Names of individuals
- Email addresses and phone numbers
- Personal or street addresses
- Invoice, PO or account numbers
- Exact shipment routes or transaction values
- Links, threats or discriminatory language
Rating guide
Rate what happened, consistently.
Overall is 1–5 stars. Each category can also be rated or marked Not applicable. Here is what the scale means.
| Category | 1: Poor | 3: Mixed | 5: Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payment reliability | Non-payment or repeatedly very late | Occasional delays, settled after reminders | Consistently on agreed terms |
| Communication | Unresponsive or misleading | Responsive but slow or inconsistent | Prompt, clear and proactive |
| Contract adherence | Ignored or renegotiated terms unilaterally | Minor deviations, resolved | Terms followed precisely |
| Product / service quality | Materially off specification | Acceptable with some issues | Matched specification throughout |
| Dispute handling | Refused to engage or resolve | Resolved slowly or partially | Resolved fairly and quickly |
Before anything is published
A human checks every reference.
- 1Evidence looks legitimate and commercially plausible
- 2Your business appears on the evidence
- 3The counterparty appears on the evidence
- 4The relationship and dates look genuine
- 5The text doesn't compromise anonymity or break policy
Prohibited conduct
Designed for manipulation from day one.
We track risk indicators across accounts, businesses, evidence and counterparties. They prompt an investigation, never an automatic ban.
Reviewing your own company
Including claimed or registry-matched profiles.
Related-party boosting
Affiliates or groups reviewing each other to inflate ratings.
Duplicate employee reviews
Several people reviewing the same relationship.
Competitor attacks
Fabricated or retaliatory negative reviews.
Reusing evidence
The same document submitted for different reviews or accounts.
Brigading
Coordinated bursts of reviews about one company.
Private disputes
Fair to reviewers. Fair to reviewed companies.
Companies can dispute a reference privately, through us. The reviewer and the company are never put in contact.
- 1
Company files a private dispute
From its claimed profile, with an explanation and any supporting documents.
- 2
We investigate internally
We may ask the company, or the reviewer anonymously, for more evidence.
- 3
We decide on the evidence
Can the review still be substantiated? Disagreement alone isn't grounds for removal.
- 4
The outcome is applied
Kept, redacted, temporarily hidden, restored or removed, and logged in our audit trail.
What a claimed company can do
- Correct objective company information and add a logo
- See the references on its profile
- Submit a private dispute with supporting documents
What it can never do
- Reply publicly or publish responses
- Edit, delete or suppress a review
- Discover or contact a reviewer, or pay to
- See reviewer evidence or manipulate aggregate ratings
Standards, explained.
No. There is no public reply feature anywhere in the product. A company can only dispute a reference privately through TradeRepute.
Traded with a company? Share what you know.
Verified businesses write evidenced, anonymous references that help the whole trade community.