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    Legal

    Acceptable Use Policy

    Effective June 9, 2026

    This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") governs all use of the PartnerAZ Platform by Buyers, Vendors, and their authorized users. The AUP is incorporated by reference into the Buyer Terms of Service and the Vendor Terms of Service. Breach of this AUP is a material breach and may result in suspension or termination of the offending account.

    1. Permitted Use

    The Platform exists to:

    • Allow Buyers to publish structured discovery requests, route vendor applications to the correct department, view applications with PartnerAZ-generated scores, collaborate internally on applications, and schedule vendor meetings.
    • Allow Vendors to maintain a structured profile, submit applications to buyer-published links, and (if the buyer initiates) participate in scheduled vendor meetings.
    • Facilitate respectful, structured interaction between Buyers and Vendors through the in-Platform features described in the Terms.

    PartnerAZ may, in the future, offer additional features (including paid features) subject to separate terms; nothing in this AUP grants rights to or obligations regarding such future features at the date of this AUP.

    2. Prohibited Vendor Conduct

    Vendors must not:

    (a) Solicit Buyer users outside the Platform as a result of information learned through the Platform. Where a Buyer has not affirmatively initiated direct contact with a Vendor (via shortlist, in-Platform message, or direct outreach), the Vendor must not cold-email, telephone, LinkedIn-message, or otherwise contact the Buyer's individual employees outside the Platform regarding the Buyer's discovery process or the Vendor's products or services. This restriction applies during the Vendor's registration and for 12 months following termination of the Vendor's account.

    (b) Attempt to discover, infer, or be informed of the identity, count, scores, application content, pricing, or any other application data of competing Vendors active on the Platform.

    (c) Submit false, misleading, or incomplete information in any Vendor profile or application, including inflated client lists, fabricated certifications, false integration claims, or fictitious pricing.

    (d) Misrepresent the regulatory status of products or services (for example, claiming SOC 2 attestation without a current report, or HIPAA compliance without supporting controls).

    (e) Pay, offer, or accept any inducement to any Platform user, Customer employee, or third party in violation of the *Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act* (Canada) (S.C. 1998, c. 34) or any other anti-bribery law. This requirement applies with particular force where the Buyer is a public-sector organization.

    (f) Coordinate with other Vendors regarding pricing, output, geographic allocation, or bidding behaviour in connection with the Platform, or share non-public Platform data with competitors.

    (g) Reverse-engineer, probe, or otherwise attempt to defeat the Platform's scoring system or vendor-isolation architecture.

    (h) Use bots, scrapers, or automated tools to access or extract data from the Platform other than through a PartnerAZ-documented integration.

    (i) Upload documents, files, or attachments. Vendor information is entered as structured data fields only; vendors may not upload any documents, files, or attachments to the Platform under any circumstances.

    3. Prohibited Buyer Conduct

    Buyers must not:

    (a) Use the Platform as a vendor-reconnaissance tool — for example, signing up under false pretences as a Buyer for the sole purpose of harvesting vendor profile data. PartnerAZ may verify Buyer organizational identity via government-issued email domain (for public-sector Buyers) or other reasonable means (for private-sector Buyers).

    (b) Solicit or accept any inducement from a Vendor in violation of applicable anti-bribery or public-procurement law.

    (c) Share vendor application content publicly (including vendor pricing, response language, or solution-overview text). Vendor application content is shared with Buyer under a confidentiality obligation set out in the Buyer Terms of Service §10. Public republication may violate the vendor's trade-secret and copyright rights.

    (d) Misuse the Platform's scoring features to manipulate vendor outcomes (for example, creating vendor-favourable or vendor-adversarial configurations as paid favours).

    (e) Upload any file other than an organization logo. Buyers may optionally upload an organization logo (displayed on the buyer's own account page only). No other file or attachment upload is permitted.

    4. Universal Prohibitions

    All users must not:

    (a) Upload or transmit malware, viruses, worms, or other harmful code.

    (b) Use the Platform to violate any applicable Canadian or provincial law, including Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), the *Competition Act*, the *Criminal Code*, PIPEDA, or any human-rights or accessibility legislation.

    (c) Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Platform, other users' accounts, or any underlying infrastructure.

    (d) Use the Platform in any way that could constitute defamation, harassment, hate speech, or threats.

    (e) Upload Personal Information of third parties without lawful basis. Upload health information, biometric or genetic data, criminal-history information, Social Insurance Numbers, financial account numbers, government-issued ID numbers, or other excluded categories listed in the Privacy Policy and the Data Processing Addendum.

    (f) Use the Platform to facilitate any conduct that would constitute an offence under *Competition Act* ss. 45 (criminal conspiracy) or 47 (bid-rigging). Section 45 and section 47 each carry a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment, in addition to financial penalties.

    5. Enforcement

    PartnerAZ may, in its sole discretion and with or without prior notice depending on severity:

    (a) Issue a written warning for first-time, low-severity violations;

    (b) Suspend an account pending investigation for substantive violations or repeated low-severity violations;

    (c) Terminate an account for serious violations, including: bribery, CASL violation, *Competition Act* violation, misrepresentation that has caused or could cause harm to a Buyer, circumvention of outreach suppression (§2(a)), or circumvention of the Chinese-wall vendor-isolation architecture (§2(b)).

    PartnerAZ will preserve relevant evidence of violations for legal and regulatory cooperation purposes.

    6. Reporting

    Any user may report a suspected AUP violation by contacting **trust@partneraz.com**. PartnerAZ will acknowledge reports within 2 business days and complete a review within 10 business days. The identity of reporters is kept confidential to the maximum extent consistent with investigation requirements.

    PartnerAZ may report serious violations to:

    • the Commissioner of Competition (Competition Bureau Canada) for bid-rigging or conspiracy concerns
    • the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by PIPEDA s.10.1 where the breach involves Personal Information for which PartnerAZ is the controlling organization
    • law enforcement for criminal violations

    7. Appeals

    A user whose account has been suspended or terminated may submit a written appeal to **trust@partneraz.com** within 30 days. PartnerAZ will respond with a final decision within 30 days of receiving the appeal. The dispute-resolution mechanism in the applicable Terms of Service governs any further dispute.

    8. Modifications

    PartnerAZ may modify this AUP on 30 days' notice via in-Platform notification and email to the registered Account Owner. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

    9. Language and Geographic Scope

    PartnerAZ does not offer services to Quebec residents at this time. The Platform is currently available only in English to users located outside the Province of Quebec, and account registration is restricted to non-Quebec users.

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