Trust & Safety Policy

This Trust & Safety Policy (“Policy”) supplements and forms part of the PlaceLocal Terms of Service (“Terms”). It applies whenever you access, or use information obtained through, PlaceLocal’s business directory and marketplace listings, or its networking features — including connections, groups, introductions, referrals, recommendations, reputation signals, AI-assisted tools, and messaging. Where this Policy conflicts with the Terms on a matter it specifically addresses, this Policy governs; on everything else, the Terms continue to apply. Capitalised terms not defined here have the meaning given in the Terms.

PlaceLocal’s networking and marketplace features are for business use. By using them you confirm that you are acting on behalf of a genuine business, and that you have the authority to represent your workspace, list its products or services, and make the commitments in this Policy on its behalf. You must keep your business profile, listings, and networking profile accurate and not misleading, and keep them up to date as your circumstances change.

PlaceLocal operates as a directory and marketplace: we provide the platform that lets local businesses list and promote their products and services, and lets customers discover them and get in touch. We are not the seller, the buyer, the service provider, the contractor, the employer, the agent, the broker, the insurer, the guarantor, or a professional adviser in connection with anything listed on PlaceLocal, unless we say so explicitly for a particular service. The business you find on PlaceLocal is who you’re dealing with.

PlaceLocal’s networking features let businesses find, connect with, and refer customers to each other. A connection request is an invitation to network — nothing more. Sending, receiving, or accepting one does not create a partnership, joint venture, agency, employment, exclusivity, or any endorsement between the businesses involved, and does not make either business responsible for the other’s conduct.

A referral is an introduction. It is not a guarantee. When you send or receive a referral through PlaceLocal, no one — including PlaceLocal — guarantees that the referral will be accepted, that the referred customer is a suitable fit, that any work will convert into a paying job, that the customer will pay, or the quality or outcome of any work performed.

If you’re the one making the referral, you must have a lawful basis, and the referred customer’s appropriate permission, before you share their personal information with another business. If you’re the one receiving a referral, you may only use the referred customer’s information for the purpose of that referral, and must otherwise handle it in line with the Privacy Policy and applicable privacy law — including not using or disclosing it for any other purpose without a separate lawful basis.

Levels, recommendations, reputation counts, and similar signals on PlaceLocal reflect other users’ activity or stated opinions of a business. They are not PlaceLocal’s endorsement, verification, or guarantee of that business, its products, its services, or its conduct.

AI Insights, rankings, referral-fit scores, health scores, business-matching suggestions, and similar analytics are informational tools only. They are not professional, legal, financial, licensing, or commercial advice, and you must still carry out your own due diligence before relying on them.

PlaceLocal provides AI tools to help you draft content — including profiles, listings, blog posts, case studies, marketing copy, advertisements, emails, referral messages, and website content. These are assistance tools, not a publishing decision-maker. You remain responsible for reviewing and approving any AI-assisted content before you publish or send it, and PlaceLocal does not guarantee that AI-generated content is accurate, complete, lawful, or suitable for your purpose.

Every referral invitation, introduction, networking email, or other electronic message you send using PlaceLocal must be lawful, relevant, and properly authorised. This is a core condition of using PlaceLocal’s referral, invitation, and email-delivery features — not a footnote. Before sending, you must:

• have the recipient’s consent, an existing business relationship, or another lawful basis sufficient for that particular communication
• truthfully complete any relationship, permission, or customer-consent declaration PlaceLocal asks you to make — for example, the confirmation shown before a referral-permission request is sent: “I confirm I know this person or have an existing business relationship with them, and reasonably believe they would welcome relevant referrals from me. This is not a cold prospecting contact.”
• only use personal information for the purpose for which it was provided to you
• identify yourself and your business accurately
• comply with the Spam Act, the Privacy Act, the Australian Consumer Law, and any other applicable law
• respect declines, complaints, unsubscribe requests, and any other sign that contact is unwanted — including not contacting the same person again through a different PlaceLocal feature after they've objected
• never send unsolicited bulk messages, scrape contact information, misrepresent a relationship, buy or upload unverified contact lists, or repeatedly contact someone who hasn’t responded or has objected
• keep reasonable evidence of consent or the relevant relationship, and provide it to PlaceLocal if reasonably requested as part of an abuse investigation

A recipient’s email address or phone number being publicly available does not, by itself, mean they have consented to receive commercial messages from you. Any commercial electronic message sent through PlaceLocal must still identify the sender and provide a working way to opt out, in line with the Spam Act.

PlaceLocal may record delivery events, consent declarations, the relationship type selected, timestamps, recipient decisions, complaints, opt-outs, prior warnings, and related information, for platform integrity, compliance, and dispute resolution.

PlaceLocal may look into a report that:

• the recipient did not consent to the communication
• the claimed business or customer relationship did not exist
• their information was shared without permission
• they kept being contacted after declining, complaining, or opting out
• the message was misleading, abusive, irrelevant, or part of unsolicited bulk outreach

A report is a claim we’ve received, not a finding. Where the nature and severity of a report indicate a real risk to other users, PlaceLocal may apply a temporary, protective restriction straight away — including before every fact is established — to reduce platform risk while the matter is looked into. This is not a finding that you did something wrong; it is a precaution. A business affected by that kind of restriction can ask for it to be reviewed (see Section 11). Once reviewed, PlaceLocal will treat the report as substantiated, not substantiated, or unresolved, and will act accordingly — including lifting a restriction where a report is not substantiated.

PlaceLocal does not promise to remove any particular listing, review, or piece of content in response to a report. We may investigate, and may ask the reporting party or the business concerned for more information, before deciding what action (if any) to take. Knowingly making a false, malicious, or retaliatory report is itself a breach of this Policy.

Where a report or our own monitoring identifies a breach of this Policy, PlaceLocal may take action proportionate to the conduct, including — but not limited to — any one or more of the following, without necessarily doing all of them:

• an education notice or formal warning
• hiding a listing, review, or piece of content
• restricting or suspending messaging, referral, or invitation functionality
• restricting or suspending a networking or marketplace profile
• removing content
• removing a business from PlaceLocal
• notifying the relevant authorities, where we're legally required to

For conduct specifically involving referral, invitation, or messaging misuse, PlaceLocal currently applies a graduated response: an initial warning, escalating to a short suspension (currently around 24 hours), then a longer suspension on further substantiated misuse (currently around 48 hours), then progressively longer suspensions up to a defined maximum, and finally an indefinite or permanent restriction where misuse is serious, repeated, deceptive, or presents a legal, privacy, security, or reputational risk. These specific timeframes are operational settings PlaceLocal may adjust from time to time; they are not a promise that any particular number of warnings must occur before a restriction applies. PlaceLocal may skip any of these steps, and act immediately, where conduct is severe, fraudulent, threatening, unlawful, involves knowingly misrepresenting consent, or creates an immediate risk to a recipient or to the platform. We apply these actions reasonably and proportionately to the risk involved, not arbitrarily.

If your account or a feature has been restricted, you may request a review. We may ask you to provide: an explanation of the communication or conduct concerned; evidence of consent or the relevant relationship; confirmation that the relevant contact records have been suppressed on your end; the corrective steps you’ve taken; and an undertaking to comply with this Policy going forward. After considering the available evidence, PlaceLocal may reinstate access, maintain or extend the restriction, limit only specific features, or permanently suspend the workspace. We make these decisions reasonably and proportionately, taking into account the severity and repetition of the conduct, the evidence available, any prior warnings, the harm (if any) to the recipient, and your response.

PlaceLocal keeps records reasonably necessary to operate this Policy — including consent declarations and the relationship type you selected, referral and message records, reports and their outcomes, enforcement history, and any publish-time acknowledgement of this Policy (including the policy version you accepted and when) — for platform safety, compliance, and dispute resolution, and in line with our Privacy Policy.

To protect deliverability and prevent misuse, PlaceLocal may apply rate limits, batch notifications into digests, moderate content, or otherwise restrict how networking or messaging features can be used — for any user, at any time, and without that being treated as a penalty.

Messages that are part of using the platform — like booking confirmations, invoices, or a notice that someone wants to connect with you — are sent regardless of marketing preferences, because they relate to an action you or someone else took on the platform. Any message that is instead commercial or promotional in nature still needs to identify its sender and provide a working unsubscribe mechanism, in line with the Spam Act, and is handled separately from transactional messages.

Nothing in this Policy shifts your business’s own responsibility for its due diligence, licensing, quotations, contracts, insurance, service quality, or the outcome of any work you perform or product you sell. PlaceLocal is the platform that helps you find and be found — the relationship, the work, and the outcome remain between you and your customer or networking partner.

This Policy is incorporated into, and forms part of, the Terms of Service. It should be read together with the Privacy Policy and the Service Availability and Support Policy. If you don’t agree to this Policy, you should not use PlaceLocal’s networking or marketplace features.

We may update this Policy from time to time. Each version is dated and numbered above; where you were asked to acknowledge this Policy at a specific point (for example, when publishing your profile), we keep a record of the version you accepted. Material changes will be reflected by an updated “last updated” date and version number, and, where required by law, we will provide additional notice.

Nothing in this Policy excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer guarantee, right, or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted, or modified under the Australian Consumer Law or any other applicable law.

Questions about this Policy, or reports under it, can be sent to support@placelocal.com.au. PlaceLocal is operated by PlaceLocal, ABN 70 059 145 600, Point Cook, VIC.