GTC Membership Terms and Conditions

These GTC Membership Terms and Conditions (the “Terms”) form a binding agreement between Global Trade Collective LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“GTC”), and the business, nonprofit organization, trade association, or other legal entity identified in the applicable membership application (“Applicant” and, after activation, “Member”).

These Terms govern the Applicant’s application, account, membership status, access to the GTC website and member platform (together, the “Platform”), and membership benefits. They do not by themselves govern or activate any specific transportation, freight-forwarding, NVOCC, brokerage, customs, insurance, lending, payment, cargo-handling, or other regulated service. Those services require the applicable quote or transaction record, provider terms, program terms, and approvals.

The individual accepting these Terms for Applicant represents that the individual is authorized to bind Applicant and agrees that GTC and Applicant may transact electronically. These Terms become binding when that representative affirmatively accepts the identified version through GTC’s approved electronic process (the “Acceptance Date”). Acceptance does not guarantee admission. Membership and paid benefits begin only when GTC confirms activation (the “Activation Date”).

Membership is available to duly organized and legally existing organizations that participate in or support global trade, transportation, logistics, supply-chain, technology, finance, insurance, compliance, consulting, or related commercial activities. Eligible organizations may include freight forwarders, NVOCCs, carriers, customs brokers, warehouses, shipping agents, cargo owners, importers, exporters, technology and data providers, insurers or insurance intermediaries, professional advisers, and industry associations.

Individuals acting solely in a personal or consumer capacity are not eligible. An Applicant must provide accurate, current information and any documentation GTC reasonably requests for identity, authority, eligibility, sanctions, fraud, security, or network-integrity review. Applicant authorizes GTC to verify that information through lawful sources and service providers.

GTC may approve, condition, defer, or deny an application using reasonable eligibility, integrity, safety, sanctions, capacity, and network-suitability criteria applied lawfully and in good faith. GTC is not required to disclose confidential security, fraud, sanctions, or risk-scoring methods.

Membership, paid membership status (including Premium or Founder), Verified status, and eligibility for a particular transaction or program are independent states. Selecting a category, submitting documents, paying a fee, receiving membership access, or displaying a membership tier does not establish that a Member is licensed, Verified, endorsed, or approved to perform a regulated service.

A Member that offers or performs a regulated service must hold and maintain the authority required for its role and jurisdiction. GTC may require satisfactory evidence before displaying a regulated category, granting Verified status based on that evidence, or activating a regulated transaction. Verified status reflects only the scope and date of GTC’s recorded review; it is not legal advice, a governmental determination, a guarantee of performance, or proof that authority remains current.

Membership eligibility does not guarantee admission, Verified status, Premium status, transaction eligibility, introductions, leads, revenue, capacity, credit, insurance, protection, or any regulated-service authorization.

The membership page, checkout, invoice, or written order summary presented before purchase identifies the applicable price, currency, billing period, renewal treatment, taxes, and any stated cancellation or refund terms. That transaction-specific record controls if it conflicts with a general description on the Platform.

A membership renews automatically only when the checkout or order summary clearly states that it will renew and the Member affirmatively authorizes recurring charges. A Member may stop a future renewal using the cancellation method shown in the account or order summary. Cancellation does not reverse benefits already delivered or amounts already due.

Except where the applicable order summary expressly provides otherwise or law requires otherwise, paid fees are non-refundable after activation. Event, trade-show, onboarding, third-party, and transaction fees are governed by their separate terms. GTC may suspend paid benefits for overdue amounts after reasonable notice.

Available benefits depend on the Member’s current tier, eligibility, geography, capacity, and the applicable program terms. GTC may improve, replace, limit, or discontinue a benefit prospectively. GTC will not materially reduce a core paid benefit during an active paid term without providing a commercially reasonable replacement, credit, or other remedy where appropriate.

Introductions, directory visibility, quotation opportunities, and leads are opportunities only. GTC does not guarantee their number, quality, timing, suitability, conversion, award, revenue, or profitability. Members remain responsible for evaluating counterparties, pricing, capacity, and transaction risk.

A Member must not knowingly use GTC confidential information to bypass GTC’s agreed compensation on a documented GTC-introduced opportunity. Any opportunity-specific protection period or fee must be stated in the applicable transaction record or separate vendor agreement.

A Member controls which eligible company and contact fields it requests GTC to publish, subject to GTC review and Platform rules. GTC may correct, restrict, suspend, or remove inaccurate, expired, misleading, unsafe, infringing, or unauthorized content. Public directory information may be viewed and used by third parties, so Members should not submit confidential or unnecessary personal information for publication.

Participation in WhatsApp groups, marketing lists, events, or other optional communities is not a condition of accepting these Terms unless the Member separately requests that service. A Member may leave an optional community or withdraw qualifying marketing consent without terminating necessary account, security, billing, or service communications.

Members must communicate professionally and must not spam, harass, threaten, discriminate, impersonate another person, misuse contact information, or make deceptive claims about GTC, another Member, or their authority.

The Platform may provide workflow, messaging, directory, quotation, tracking, market-information, and other operational tools. Tracking events, estimated times, maps, carrier information, market data, and similar outputs may come from Members, carriers, vendors, public sources, or other third parties. They may be delayed, incomplete, estimated, or unavailable and should be confirmed with the performing provider before operational decisions are made.

Tracking credits and other usage allocations are licenses to use the applicable Platform feature during the stated period. They are not cash, stored value, or transferable property unless GTC expressly agrees otherwise. Provider outages, identifier limitations, refresh intervals, and fair-use or security controls may affect availability.

GTC may monitor and restrict Platform activity to protect users, enforce limits, prevent abuse, and comply with law. Members must not scrape, reverse engineer, probe, overload, bypass access controls, or use the Platform to build a competing directory or dataset.

GTC’s Platform is designed to help logistics professionals connect, exchange opportunities and shipment information, manage quotes and workflows, access operational tools, and improve their operations. A quote or transaction record will identify the performing vendor, customer, service scope, pricing, payment structure, and each party’s disclosed role.

Unless a transaction record expressly identifies a properly authorized GTC entity for a specific role, the performing vendor remains responsible for transportation, carriage, freight forwarding, NVOCC, motor brokerage, customs, warehousing, cargo custody, insurance, claims, and other regulated or operational services it supplies. GTC may administer the commercial channel, present a customer price, issue an invoice, collect through an approved payment provider, reconcile funds, and settle an agreed vendor amount only as stated in the transaction record and applicable agreement.

No transaction activates until the required provider, authority, insurance, payment, data, and customer-acceptance conditions are complete. A membership checkbox is not a booking confirmation and does not create cargo custody, carrier status, insurance coverage, credit, or an obligation to move freight.

Premium status or payment alone does not create insurance or Logistics Cost Protection (“LCP”). A Member may be considered for LCP only if the Member is both currently Verified and covered by an active eligible paid entitlement, the specific program has been approved and made available, the transaction satisfies the separate program rules, and the current program terms were accepted before the transaction. Eligibility for review is not approval of a claim or a promise of payment.

GTC is not an insurer, underwriter, insurance producer, lender, bank, fiduciary, escrow agent, or guarantor solely because it offers membership or Platform access. Any cargo insurance, protection, financing, extended-payment, or collection program must identify the authorized provider, eligibility decision, fees, limits, exclusions, and controlling terms.

Members should maintain insurance appropriate to their operations and should not rely on membership, a badge, a quote, tracking data, or an introduction as a substitute for cargo, professional, cyber, liability, credit, or other insurance.

A Member must keep its organization, contact, ownership, authority, licensing, insurance, sanctions, and material compliance information current. It must promptly notify GTC of a material change that could affect eligibility, a badge, an active program, or a transaction.

Members must comply with applicable trade, transportation, customs, sanctions, anti-bribery, export-control, competition, privacy, security, tax, and consumer-protection laws. A Member must not use GTC to transact with a prohibited party or destination, conceal an unlawful purpose, falsify records, divert payments, or misuse confidential or personal data.

Each Member is responsible for its personnel, credentials, devices, submissions, quotations, instructions, subcontractors, and services. Suspected credential compromise, fraud, data exposure, or misuse must be reported promptly to membership@globaltradecollective.com.

GTC and its licensors retain all rights in the Platform, GTC marks, software, designs, compilations, and materials. GTC grants each active Member a limited, revocable, non-transferable right to use the Platform for its internal business participation in accordance with these Terms.

A Member retains ownership of content it submits and grants GTC a non-exclusive license to host, reproduce, display, transmit, and process that content only as reasonably necessary to operate the requested Platform, directory, community, or transaction function. The Member represents that it has the rights and notices required to provide the content.

Membership, a GTC ID, a badge, a directory listing, or participation in a GTC community does not authorize a Member to act for GTC, bind GTC, collect funds in GTC’s name, issue an official GTC quotation, or claim employment, agency, partnership, sponsorship, or endorsement beyond the status GTC expressly approved in writing.

GTC may proportionately restrict or suspend access while investigating a documented payment, fraud, security, licensing, sanctions, safety, conduct, data, or legal concern. Where lawful and practical, GTC will give notice and an opportunity to provide relevant information or cure a remediable breach.

GTC may terminate membership for a material breach that is not timely cured, or immediately where the breach cannot be cured or continued access creates material legal, security, fraud, safety, sanctions, cargo, payment, or reputational risk. A Member may terminate according to the cancellation method applicable to its account.

Termination ends future access but does not erase accrued payment obligations, accepted transactions, confidentiality duties, intellectual-property rights, dispute rights, or provisions that by their nature should survive.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform, membership benefits, directory, introductions, tracking displays, estimates, third-party data, and general information are provided on an “as available” basis. GTC disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, uninterrupted availability, and any guaranteed lead, revenue, award, shipment result, transit time, capacity, credit decision, coverage, or business outcome.

GTC does not provide legal, customs, tax, accounting, insurance, investment, or regulatory advice through general Platform content. Members must obtain advice appropriate to their activities and jurisdictions. Nothing in these Terms excludes an express obligation GTC accepts in a separate signed agreement or transaction record.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither GTC nor the Member is liable to the other under these Terms for indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, punitive, or consequential damages, or lost profits, revenue, goodwill, opportunity, or data, even if advised of the possibility.

GTC’s aggregate liability arising from these Terms will not exceed the greater of USD 100 or the membership fees the Member actually paid to GTC during the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. This cap does not apply to GTC’s fraud, willful misconduct, or liability that law prohibits limiting. It does not govern an accepted transaction with a different express liability allocation.

A claim involving cargo, transportation, customs, insurance, payment, or another vendor-supplied service is governed by the applicable transaction record, transport document, provider terms, tariff, convention, and mandatory law.

The Member will defend and indemnify GTC and its personnel from a third-party claim, governmental demand, loss, penalty, damage, or reasonable legal fee arising from the Member’s content, services, personnel, subcontractors, unlawful conduct, missing authority, infringement, data misuse, or material breach of these Terms. GTC will provide prompt notice and reasonable cooperation, and the Member may control the defense subject to GTC’s right to participate and approve any settlement that admits fault by or imposes a non-monetary obligation on GTC.

Before filing suit, the parties will give written notice describing the dispute and requested relief and will attempt a good-faith business resolution for at least ten business days. This does not prevent emergency relief, protect a limitations period, or delay a legally required report.

These Terms are governed by Delaware law, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, except that mandatory transportation, customs, payment, privacy, sanctions, or other law applies to the extent it cannot be varied by contract. The state and federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising only from these Terms, subject to any mandatory forum governing a particular transaction.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, each party knowingly waives trial by jury for a dispute arising from these Terms.

Operational notices may be delivered through the account, Platform, or ordinary business email. A legal notice must be sent to membership@globaltradecollective.com with “Legal Notice” in the subject line and to the Member’s current account notice contact. Electronic notices are effective when the receiving system records delivery, unless a delivery failure is shown.

GTC may update these Terms prospectively. A material change will be identified by a new version and effective date and, where appropriate, presented for renewed acceptance. GTC will not create retroactive obligations by silently changing a webpage.

These Terms, the accepted order summary, incorporated program terms, and applicable transaction records form the agreement on their respective subjects. If one provision is unenforceable, it will be narrowed as necessary and the remainder will continue. A waiver must be written and applies only to the stated instance. Neither party may assign these Terms except to an affiliate or successor that assumes the applicable obligations, with notice where commercially reasonable.

Questions about membership or these Terms may be sent to membership@globaltradecollective.com.