Terms of Service

Version: 3.0 Effective date: 2026-05-01 Last updated: 2026-04-20 Jurisdiction: Republic of Korea (primary); see §18 for international users

Preamble

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern the relationship between the operator of BidSealed (the "Service") and any party using the Service ("Member"). The Terms define the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of each party in the context of BidSealed's mediation of B2B quote requests.

BidSealed is a B2B quote portal that mediates the discovery and sealed-bid exchange of commercial offers between verified businesses. The Service operator acts as a communication intermediary (통신판매중개자) and is not a party to the transactions between Members.

By using the Service, Members acknowledge and agree that contracts formed off-platform between Members, following a BidSealed-mediated award, are independent of the Service, and the operator assumes no role as a contracting party in those agreements.

Chapter 1 — General Provisions

§1 (Purpose)

These Terms regulate the basic matters of Service use: rights and obligations, conditions and procedures, and the scope of the operator's responsibilities.

§2 (Definitions)

In these Terms:

  1. "Service" means the website operated at https://bidsealed.com and its subdomains, and all features attached thereto.

  2. "Member" means any business (or authorized employee thereof) that has agreed to these Terms and successfully completed corporate email verification.

  3. "Buyer" means a Member who posts a Request for Proposal (RFP) and receives Sealed Bids in response.

  4. "Vendor" means a Member who submits a Sealed Bid in response to a Buyer's RFP. The term applies regardless of the Vendor's classification (manufacturer, distributor, VAR, SI, reseller, freelancer, etc.).

  5. "RFP (Request for Proposal)" means a posting by a Buyer describing a procurement or contract need.

  6. "Sealed Bid" means a Vendor's response to an RFP that includes pricing, conditions, and proposal content, the full content of which is visible only to the Buyer of the associated RFP and not to other Vendors or third parties.

  7. "Multi-Award" means the Service's default award mechanism by which a Buyer may award a single RFP to one Vendor, multiple Vendors, or none.

  8. "Anonymous Identifier" means a platform-assigned serial number (e.g., "Anonymous Buyer #2041") used to obscure the Buyer's actual company name, contact person, and email from the public RFP board.

  9. "Country Verification Badge" means a visual indicator (e.g., "🇰🇷 KR Verified") showing the verified country of a Member's business domain. The Member's company name remains private.

  10. "1:1 Reveal" means the state that arises upon the Buyer's award of an RFP to a specific Vendor, in which that Buyer's and that awarded Vendor's full business contact information become mutually visible — and only to that specific pair.

  11. "Operator" means the entity that develops, operates, and maintains the Service.

§3 (Posting and Amendment of Terms)

① The Operator posts these Terms in a location within the Service that is easily accessible to Members.

② The Operator may amend these Terms within the bounds of applicable law. Amendments are notified at least 7 days before effective date via in-Service announcement or to the Member's verified email address.

③ Amendments that materially affect Members' rights or obligations are notified at least 30 days in advance. A Member's failure to object before the effective date is deemed acceptance.

④ A Member who does not accept amended Terms may discontinue use and withdraw. Past usage is governed by the Terms in effect at that time.

Chapter 2 — Membership and Eligibility

§4 (Eligibility)

① The Service is intended for business-to-business (B2B) transactions. Eligibility requires:

  1. The Member is an employee or representative of a legally registered business in Korea or another country in which BidSealed supports verification.
  2. The Member holds a valid corporate email address on a domain owned or lawfully used by that business.
  3. The Member complies with these Terms and applicable laws.

② The following email domain categories are ineligible:

  1. Free/consumer email providers (e.g., @gmail.com, @naver.com, @daum.net, @yahoo.com, @outlook.com, and equivalents in other countries).
  2. Disposable email services.
  3. Domains associated with unlawful businesses or internationally sanctioned entities.

③ Members under age 19 are in principle restricted, unless the individual is a lawful employee or representative of a registered business.

§5 (Membership Procedure)

① Prospective Members complete the following steps:

  1. Enter a corporate email address. Automated domain validation applies.
  2. Receive and enter a one-time password (OTP) delivered to the submitted email.
  3. Provide company name, display name, and role designation (Buyer, Vendor, or Both).
  4. Agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

② The Operator may refuse enrollment or subsequently revoke membership in any of the following circumstances:

  1. Enrollment information is false or the identity of another is misused.
  2. Eligibility under §4 is not satisfied.
  3. The Member was previously subject to restriction or forced withdrawal.
  4. Public order or good morals would be harmed by the Member's participation.

Chapter 3 — Service Use

§6 (Posting an RFP)

① Buyers may post RFPs using the Service's supported categories and standard specification forms.

② The title, specifications, quantity, timeline, and conditions of an RFP may appear on the public board. When this occurs, the Buyer's company name, contact person, and email are automatically replaced with the Anonymous Identifier.

③ When posting an RFP, the Buyer must:

  1. Base the posting on an actual intent to procure or contract (not hypothetical or data-collection-only).
  2. Not include content that infringes on third-party trade secrets, intellectual property, or personal information.
  3. Not post requests for illegal goods or services.

④ A Buyer may amend or cancel an RFP before the stated deadline. After the deadline, the RFP transitions to the Sealed Bid review and award decision stage.

§7 (Sealed Bid Response)

① Vendors may submit Sealed Bids to open RFPs before the stated deadline.

② Technical characteristics of a Sealed Bid:

  1. Pricing, conditions, and proposal content are visible solely to the Buyer of the associated RFP.
  2. Other Vendors may observe only the total count of Sealed Bids (anonymized), never their content.
  3. Access restrictions are enforced at the database level via Row-Level Security policies. The Operator does not access Sealed Bid contents absent a lawful request.

③ A Vendor may submit one Sealed Bid per RFP and may amend or withdraw it before the deadline.

④ Accuracy, feasibility, and technical fit of Sealed Bid content are the sole responsibility of the submitting Vendor.

§8 (Multi-Award and 1:1 Reveal)

① Following the deadline — or upon early closure by the Buyer — the Buyer may review Sealed Bids and make one of the following decisions:

  1. Single Award: award the RFP to exactly one Vendor.
  2. Split Award (Multi-Award): award the RFP simultaneously to multiple Vendors, forming separate 1:1 relationships with each.
  3. No Award: decline to award the RFP to any Vendor.

② Upon award, information disclosure proceeds as follows:

  1. Between the Buyer and each awarded Vendor, company name, contact person, and email become mutually visible, enabling direct communication and off-platform contracting.
  2. Each non-awarded Vendor is notified that their bid was not selected. They do not learn the identity, pricing, or conditions of awarded Vendors.
  3. Third parties and non-awarded Members cannot view the award outcome of the RFP.

③ In a Split Award, each award is treated as an independent 1:1 relationship. Awarded Vendors cannot observe each other's existence, identity, or conditions.

④ After an award decision, the Buyer is expected to proceed with awarded Vendors in a reasonable timeframe and must not rescind an award or delay follow-up communication without legitimate cause.

⑤ Automatic closure: If the Buyer does not make an award decision within 14 days of the deadline, the Service automatically closes the RFP with "No Award" status and notifies all Vendors accordingly. This protects Vendors from indefinite uncertainty.

§9 (Contract Formation and Payment)

① The Service mediates RFP posting and Sealed Bid reception only. Contract formation, payment, escrow, and invoicing occur directly between the awarded Vendor(s) and the Buyer after the 1:1 Reveal, without BidSealed's involvement.

② The Operator is not a party to contracts formed between Members and bears no responsibility for contract performance, non-performance, defects, non-payment, or related disputes.

③ The Service does not charge fees for core functionality (RFP posting, Sealed Bid submission, award, 1:1 Reveal, notifications, and the features available at launch). If the Operator introduces fees for optional premium features in the future, such fees will be announced with reasonable notice, and the core functionality available under this version of the Terms will remain free for Members who joined during this period, for as long as they continue to use the Service in good faith.

Chapter 4 — Member Obligations and Prohibited Conduct

§10 (General Obligations)

① Members comply with these Terms, applicable laws, and in-Service notices.

② Members secure their own account credentials and bear responsibility for damages arising from credential exposure or misuse.

③ Members do not use information about other Members (including contact information obtained after 1:1 Reveal) for purposes outside the transaction context, nor provide such information to third parties.

§11 (Prohibited Conduct)

Members must not:

  1. Impersonate another person or business, or misuse another's corporate email or business information.
  2. Post RFPs with no actual procurement intent, for the purpose of harvesting pricing information from Vendors.
  3. Attempt to defeat the Sealed Bid property by any means (technical circumvention, insider collusion, impersonation of Operator, etc.).
  4. Collude with other Vendors or Buyers to manipulate pricing or distort the market.
  5. Submit Sealed Bids with falsified or exaggerated specifications.
  6. Use contact information obtained via 1:1 Reveal for spam, unsolicited sales, or resale to third parties.
  7. Circumvent the Service by arranging off-platform payment outside the post-award flow, then manipulating the Service's award records.
  8. Use automated means (bots, crawlers) to bulk-register RFPs or Sealed Bids.
  9. Interfere with normal Service operation or defame the Operator or other Members.
  10. Engage in any conduct contrary to applicable law or public order.

§12 (Consequences of Violation)

① The Operator may take the following measures in sequence or selectively, upon a violation:

  1. Written warning or in-Service warning.
  2. Private (unlisted) processing of offending content or Sealed Bid.
  3. Temporary restriction (functional limitation or suspension).
  4. Permanent suspension and forced withdrawal.
  5. Reporting to law enforcement or pursuit of civil remedies under applicable law.

② Serious violations (collusion, Sealed Bid circumvention, submission of materially false information) may result in immediate permanent suspension without prior warning.

Chapter 5 — Operator Role and Limitations

§13 (Status as Communication Intermediary)

① The Operator holds the status of 통신판매중개자 (communication intermediary) under the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, or an equivalent status under applicable foreign law, and is not a party to transactions between Members.

② The Operator does not guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or performability of RFPs, Sealed Bids, or Member profiles.

③ The Operator is not responsible as a contracting party for the formation, performance, defect, or dispute of contracts between Members; the Operator's role is limited to platform mediation and, where appropriate, facilitation of dispute resolution.

§14 (Service Provision and Modifications)

① The Operator makes reasonable efforts to provide stable service but Service availability may be temporarily interrupted due to maintenance, faults, force majeure, or regulatory changes.

② The Operator may from time to time perform technical improvements, add features, change UI, add categories, or add country support. Members consent to such routine modifications.

③ If the Operator must terminate all or part of the Service for unavoidable reasons, 30 days' advance notice is given via in-Service announcement and to each Member's verified email address.

§15 (Limitation of Liability)

① The Operator is not responsible for damages arising from:

  1. Force majeure (natural disaster, war, legal changes, governmental orders).
  2. Member fault (credential mismanagement, Terms violation, false registration).
  3. Direct contracts between Members (performance, non-performance, defects).
  4. Misuse of information obtained via 1:1 Reveal by the recipient.
  5. Outages of third-party services integrated with BidSealed (email service, domain registrar, payment service).

② Where the Operator's liability is found, it is limited to usual and direct damages; lost profits, special damages, indirect damages, and third-party claims are excluded.

Chapter 6 — Privacy, Country Verification, and International Use

§16 (Personal Information)

① The Operator processes Member personal information in accordance with a separate Privacy Policy.

② The Operator uses the Member's corporate email domain to auto-assign a Country Verification Badge (e.g., KR, JP, US). The Member's legal business name is never made public on the board.

③ A Buyer's identifying information (company name, contact, email) is not published on the public board. Disclosure is limited to the 1:1 Reveal that occurs following award.

§17 (Country Verification Badges and Global Use)

① BidSealed is designed as a global platform where businesses worldwide can participate via their own country's corporate domain.

② Country Verification Badges are derived from the Member's email domain's TLD and related public signals, represented as the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code.

③ Country Verification Badges may not precisely reflect a Member's business location or operational jurisdiction; Members may not claim contractual preference based on badge accuracy.

④ Country-specific business registration, tax, export/import regulation, and sanctions compliance are the sole responsibility of the Member; the Operator assumes no such responsibility.

⑤ The default UI language is Korean; additional languages are added incrementally. Members accept that specific languages may not always be available.

§18 (International Jurisdiction and Applicable Law)

① These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea.

② Disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the court in the Operator's principal place of business as the first-instance court, unless the Member resides outside Korea, in which case parties may select mutually agreeable arbitration or jurisdiction to the extent permitted by law.

Chapter 7 — Termination, Withdrawal, and Miscellaneous

§19 (Member Withdrawal)

① A Member may terminate membership at any time via the in-Service withdrawal function.

② Upon withdrawal, the Member's profile and cumulative activity records are deleted within a reasonable period, except for records that applicable law requires the Operator to retain. Pending RFPs or Sealed Bids may delay withdrawal processing until the transaction is closed.

§20 (Operator-Initiated Revocation)

① A Member subject to permanent suspension under §12 may not re-register using the same corporate domain.

② The Operator may deactivate or delete accounts that have been inactive for an extended period (minimum 12 months).

§21 (Intellectual Property)

① All intellectual property in the Service (trademarks, logos, design, source code, UI, database structure) belongs to the Operator.

② Copyrights in Member-contributed content (RFPs, Sealed Bids, profile text) belong to the Member. The Member grants the Operator a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, modify, and display such content for Service operation, improvement, analytics, and promotion. Sealed Bid content before 1:1 Reveal is excluded from this license; the Operator does not use such content for promotional or statistical purposes.

§22 (Communication)

① Official notices to Members use the Member's verified email or in-Service announcements.

② Members must update their email address promptly upon change. Consequences of undelivered notices due to stale email addresses rest with the Member.

§23 (Interpretation)

① Matters not specified are governed by applicable law, individually announced operating policies, and general commercial practice.

② If any provision is declared invalid by a competent court, the remaining provisions continue in effect.

Addendum

These Terms take effect on 2026-05-01.

Version 3.0 · Multi-Award · Global Business Verification · Public Request · Sealed Bid