For suppliers and vendors
The Vendor Promise
Honest suppliers should not have to lose business to dishonest ones. Make a public promise, get the free tools to keep it, and let your customers see it.
What you promise
- We do not pay, offer or promise hidden commissions, kickbacks, gifts or other benefits to anyone, in return for choosing us when they are spending someone else's money.
- We do not ask for, or accept, any such benefit from our own suppliers.
- Where a commission is lawful and agreed, such as a broker's commission written into a contract, we do not hide it from the person whose money it is.
- We will not use hospitality, favours or pressure to change a decision-maker's judgement.
- We have, and follow, a written anti-bribery policy, our staff are trained on it, and we will show it to anyone who asks.
We understand that commissions exist in brokerage. A charter or sales broker's commission, written into the contract and known to the client, is ordinary and lawful. The promise is about what is hidden, and about influence on decisions made with other people's money.
Dark versions for dark websites are provided with your pack.
Each badge links to the vendor's listing on this site, where anyone can check it. A badge on a vendor that is not listed here is not ours.
Join the founding vendors
See how it works, then tell us who you are. We check with you, you sign, and we list you. Free while we start; any later contribution is told to you in writing first.
Why make it
Be the supplier owners and managers can trust
Owners, management companies and charter guests want to know that the people they buy from are not paying for orders. A public promise answers the question before it is asked.
Answer every tender questionnaire in one line
Most due-diligence forms ask about anti-bribery. You will have a written policy, a signed declaration and a verifiable listing to point to.
Protect your people and your business
A policy, training, a register and a script mean your sales team knows exactly what to say when it is asked for commission. That protects them and the company.
Show you understand the law
Bribery law in the countries where yachts are supplied punishes the offer and the request. The pack explains each country and gives you the clauses to adopt.
Stand with other honest suppliers
A supplier that refuses to pay for orders loses business to those who do. The more suppliers say so publicly, the less that is true.
Low cost, never for sale
Founding vendors join free. We plan a small annual contribution, about €100 a year, to fund legal costs and the standard itself. A fee never buys a listing: only keeping the promise does. The free resources stay free.
The free toolkit
Everything a supplier needs to turn the promise into a working system. Written to be adopted as it stands, then adapted.
Policies and procedures
Training
Templates and forms
- Supplier declaration: no hidden payments (three-part form)
- Gifts, hospitality and commission-requests register
- Due diligence questionnaire for agents, brokers and introducers
- Anti-bribery risk assessment (template, with yachting scenarios)
- Annual compliance certificate (staff and company)
- Vendor Promise launch kit: announcements, answers and wording you can copy
Checklists
Also read: what every vendor must understand about the law and what suppliers should do.
Vendors who have made the promise
No vendors are listed yet. We would like you to be the first. Listing is by consent only, and we confirm each promise with the vendor before anything appears.
Using the badge
Paste this into your website, replacing your-company with your listing name. It is a link and an image, nothing else, and it loads nothing from third parties.
<a href="https://web-production-c3a1f.up.railway.app/vendors/your-company" rel="noopener"><img src="https://web-production-c3a1f.up.railway.app/badges/vendor-promise.svg" width="260" height="88" alt="TransparentSea Vendor Promise: no hidden commissions"></a>
What the badge is, and is not
- It is a public promise by the vendor. It is not an audit, a certification or a guarantee, and we do not inspect vendors' books.
- If a vendor breaks the promise, or we have good reason to think it has, we will remove it from this list. Anyone can tell us privately.
- We are an unpaid volunteer project. We cannot verify every claim, and will not pretend to.