Terms of Trading

The Pallet Exchange Ltd ("TPX", "we", "us", "our") is registered in England and Wales (Company No. 17361549). We operate the platform at thepalletexchange.uk and The Pallet Exchange mobile app (together, "the Platform").

These Terms of Trading explain how buying and selling pallets on the Platform works, and the rules everyone agrees to when they trade. They sit alongside our Privacy Policy and, for Premium members, the Premium Membership Terms. By using the Platform you agree to these terms.

1. Who can trade

The Platform is for verified UK businesses only. To trade you must apply, be approved, and complete verification of your business (via Companies House) and your bank account. You must be authorised to trade on behalf of your business, and keep your account details accurate.

2. Staying anonymous

Buyers and sellers stay anonymous to each other while trading. Business names and delivery addresses are only released once a buyer has paid for a confirmed deal, and only to the two parties in that deal. Phone numbers and email addresses are never shared with another member: all arranging happens through in-app messaging on a paid deal. You must not put contact details, company names or anything that identifies you into a listing, a buy request, an offer or a message. We automatically remove obvious contact details, and we may remove or edit anything that breaks anonymity.

3. Selling — listings and sealed bidding

When you list pallets for sale you set what you are selling, how many, the grade and how it will be fulfilled (delivery or collection), and a closing time. You may set a reserve: the least you will accept per pallet. Your reserve is never shown to buyers.

Bidding is sealed and blind. Buyers place one bid each and never see anyone else's price, nor whether they are winning or losing. Prices are set per pallet and always move in whole 5p steps.

• When your listing closes, if the highest bid meets your reserve, the deal is struck automatically with that buyer.
• If no bid meets your reserve, nothing is sold automatically. You may then choose to accept a bid below your reserve if you wish, or let the listing end with no sale. TPX never sells below your reserve without your say-so.
• If two or more buyers are tied at the top, it goes to a short tie-break (see section 5).

What you can sell: ownership and prohibited equipment

Each time you offer pallets for sale, and again when a bid is accepted, you confirm that you own the pallets and have the right to sell them; that they are paid for in full and are not subject to any retention of title, charge, lien, consignment, sale-or-return or other arrangement under which a supplier or anyone else keeps ownership of them or a right to recover them (retention of title is common in the pallet trade, where a supplier's invoice keeps the goods theirs until it is paid in full); that they are not stolen and are not in dispute as to ownership; and that they include no pooled or rental equipment.

You may not offer, and TPX will not buy, any pallet or associated equipment that is owned by, rented from, or issued under the pooling or rental programme of a pooling operator, including CHEP, LPR, IPP and PECO, or anything carrying such an operator's branding, colour scheme or asset markings, however you came to hold it. This does not apply to EPAL or UIC standard euro pallets, or to any other pallets that are ordinarily bought and sold outright. Where a kind of pallet exists in both an owned form and a pooled or rental form, only the pooled or branded form is caught. You must tell us at once if you discover that pallets you supplied were pooled equipment or were subject to a retention of title claim.

4. Buying — bids and buy requests

You can bid on any listing. A bid is a firm commitment to buy at that price if you win, so only bid what the pallets are worth to you.

Buy requestsPremium members can post a buy request: you tell the market what you need and set the most you will pay per pallet ("your top price"). Sellers then send you sealed offers. Your top price is private and is never shown to sellers. Buy requests run as an auction to a closing time.

5. Tie-breaks

If a sale or a buy request ends with more than one party level on price, we run one short, timed tie-break round so it can be settled fairly.

• On a listing, tied buyers each get one chance to raise their bid by at least 5p a pallet, hold, or drop out. The seller may also simply choose the buyer that suits them best.
• On a buy request, tied sellers each get one chance to come down by at least 5p a pallet, hold, or step away. The cheapest offer wins.

6. Prices, fees and VAT

All prices are per pallet and in whole 5p steps. Buyers never pay any fee.

• Seller margin: 3.5% of the sale for Premium members, 5.0% for pay-as-you-go members.
• Admin fee: £9.50 plus VAT per completed deal, paid by the seller.
• VAT: where VAT applies, it is shown separately and added to the buyer's payment and to our fees. VAT amounts are itemised on the invoices and self-bills generated for each trade.
• If a deal does not complete: no admin fee is charged to the seller.

If a buyer pays for a deal and the seller then fails to deliver, the seller is charged the £9.50 admin fee plus a £45 charge, plus VAT. That £45 is a genuine pre-estimate of our administrative and re-listing costs when a paid deal is not honoured; it is not a penalty. If a buyer does not pay within the payment window, the deal is cancelled, no money changes hands, and the lot may be relisted.

The exact figures for any deal are always shown to you before and after it is struck, and on the VAT documents in your account.

Self-billing agreement

Because TPX buys your pallets from you and sells them on, TPX raises the sales invoice for that purchase on your behalf rather than you invoicing TPX. By accepting these Terms you enter into a self-billing agreement with THE PALLET EXCHANGE LTD, and you agree that:

• TPX may issue self-billed invoices for all pallets it buys from you through the platform, for the period of this agreement, and will show both parties' names, addresses and VAT registration numbers on each self-billed invoice once TPX is VAT registered;
• you will not raise your own sales invoices for the pallets TPX buys from you through the platform;
• you will accept each self-billed invoice TPX issues to you;
• you will tell TPX at once if you change your VAT registration number, cease to be VAT registered, or transfer your business as a going concern; and
• this self-billing agreement is reviewed at least every 12 months, and again whenever these Terms are updated and you are asked to accept the new version.

Where you are not VAT registered, or TPX is not yet VAT registered, the same document is your plain record of the sale to TPX and carries no VAT.

7. Payment and getting paid

When a deal is struck, the buyer pays TPX for the pallets (the price plus any VAT), through our regulated payment provider. TPX then pays the seller for their pallets, less the admin fee, once the deal is complete. The seller's money reaches their verified bank account, normally within 1 to 3 working days after the pallets are received. We do not store your full bank or card details.

8. Delivery, collection and inspection

Each deal is either a delivery (the seller arranges delivery to the buyer) or a collection (the buyer collects from the seller), as set on the listing. Both parties arrange the details through in-app messaging once payment has cleared.

On a delivery, the buyer checks the pallets on arrival. If the load is as agreed, the buyer confirms and the seller is paid. If part of the load is not as agreed, the buyer can accept the part that is good and reject the rest: the seller is paid for what was accepted, and the buyer is refunded for what was rejected, VAT included. If the two parties cannot agree, either can raise it with us (see section 9).

You have 72 hours from receiving a load, on delivery, or from the seller confirming handover on a collection, to check it and to accept it, accept part of it, or reject all or part of it by raising a problem with a reason and photographs. We hold the payment until that window closes or the problem is resolved. If you accept, or the 72 hours pass without a valid claim, the load is treated as accepted and the seller is paid, and you may not afterwards claim about anything that checking the load would reasonably have shown, such as the count, the grade or visible condition. This does not affect a claim that the pallets were not the seller's to sell (including pooled or retention of title equipment), or a fault that could not reasonably have been found on inspection.

9. If something goes wrong

If a delivery is not as described, damaged, short, or never arrives, either party can raise a problem from the deal. While we look into it, the seller is not paid and nothing moves on the deal until we have decided. We review the evidence from both sides and decide a fair outcome, which may include releasing payment, splitting it for a part-load, or refunding the buyer. Our decision on a disputed deal is final.

10. Trust and conduct

Reputation on TPX is earned only from real completed deals — how reliably members pay, deliver and complete. It is shown to others as a band, never an exact score, and there are no written reviews. You agree to trade in good faith: honour the deals you strike, describe pallets accurately, and keep to the timelines. We may suspend or remove members who break these terms, break anonymity, or trade in bad faith.

11. Our role and liability

TPX runs the exchange, decides the auctions, and handles the money for each deal. TPX buys the pallets from the seller and sells them to the buyer; the pallets usually move directly from the seller to the buyer. To the extent permitted by law, TPX's total liability to a buyer or a seller arising from a deal is limited to the price the buyer paid for that deal, and TPX is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as a sale you missed or lost profit. Nothing in these terms excludes any liability that cannot be excluded by law.

If you sell pallets that turn out not to be yours to sell, you cover us for the loss. You indemnify TPX against all claims, costs and losses arising from a breach of the confirmations in section 3, including a claim by a pooling operator, by your own supplier asserting title under a retention of title condition, or by anyone else asserting ownership of pallets you supplied, together with our reasonable legal costs. We keep records of every trade and may share them with a pooling operator, a supplier asserting title, a law enforcement agency, or anyone else where the law requires it or where we reasonably need to in order to answer a claim that goods traded through TPX were not the seller's to sell. Members agree to cooperate with any such enquiry.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms of Trading from time to time. Where a change is material, we will let you know by email or in-app notification. The "last updated" date above always reflects the current version. Continuing to trade after a change means you accept the updated terms.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.