CargoSettle Terms and Privacy Supplement

1. The service

CargoSettle helps freight forwarders, NVOCCs, their overseas agents, and the shippers and consignees involved with them resolve commercial disputes: unpaid freight, cargo released without the original bill of lading, abandoned cargo and the demurrage, detention and storage it runs up, agency account disputes, destination charges used to hold cargo, and related matters. We review your documents, establish the facts, communicate with the parties involved and negotiate on your behalf.

• We act for you only. We do not offer neutral mediation and never act for both sides of a dispute.
• We never receive, hold or direct your money. Any settlement names your bank account. If a payment reaches us by mistake, we return it within 5 business days.
• We do not buy claims or take assignments of claims. You remain the party entitled to payment.
• CargoSettle is separate from FreightAudit Pilot’s Claims and Dispute Advisory and is not governed by the fee terms in section 2B of our Website Terms of Use.

2. Plans and commission

• Starter: USD 499 a month and a 15% commission; one active dispute file at a time.
• Growth: USD 999 a month and a 10% commission; up to three active files; one Agent Check a month, quarterly agency statement review and strategy call, and the Release Control Kit.
• Scale: USD 1,999 a month and a 5% commission; up to eight active files (fair use); four Agent Checks a month, monthly statement review and strategy call, and the Release Control Kit.

Monthly fees are billed in advance through Stripe. The commission is a percentage of the Amount Recovered on a file we worked: money paid to you, charges waived, credited or reduced against what was invoiced to you, and agreed set-offs, including amounts obtained through counsel, mediation, arbitration or court. We invoice the commission only after you confirm that the money has arrived or the credit or waiver has been issued; invoices are due within 15 days. Settlements paid in installments are invoiced pro rata as each installment arrives. If a recovery is reversed, the matching commission is credited back. Extra active files above your plan’s limit: upgrade, or USD 250 per extra file per month. Annual prepayment by invoice receives two months free.

3. Term, cancellation and tail

• The minimum term is 3 months; after that the plan renews month to month.
• Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period. Months already billed are not refunded.
• The commission rate for a file is locked to the plan active on the day the file was opened.
• Files opened while you were subscribed remain subject to the commission on amounts recovered within 12 months after your cancellation takes effect.

4. Expenses

Travel, accommodation, ground transport, per diem meals, interpreters and certified translation, courier, notary and apostille fees, registry and document retrieval fees are billed at cost with receipts and no markup, and only after you approve a written estimate. Trips estimated above USD 1,500 are paid in advance, before booking. Our time is covered by your plan and is never billed as an expense.

5. Working with counsel

• With your written approval for each step, we may propose counsel or a registered mediator, request and negotiate fee quotes and scope, brief counsel with the file and instruct counsel within the scope you approve.
• Counsel is engaged by you, works for you and bills you directly. A first consultation is typically budgeted at about USD 500; further work is scoped to the size and complexity of the matter and approved by you.
• We receive no referral fee, commission or share of fees from any lawyer or mediator.
• Legal strategy and legal advice are counsel’s responsibility. We are not a law firm.
• Where the law of a country reserves negotiation or formal steps to lawyers or registered mediators (for example in Türkiye), those steps are carried out by them, and we support and coordinate.

6. Authorization, approvals and screening

• No counterparty, consignee, carrier or terminal is contacted before you have signed the consulting agreement and the letter of authorization.
• No offer, settlement, counsel engagement or expense is made or incurred without your approval.
• Before we act, every client and every file is checked for conflicts with our FreightAudit Pilot work and screened against sanctions and export-control lists, including the goods and routing of the shipment. We decline matters that fail either check and refund any fee paid for the period not used.
• We do not threaten anyone, contact the other party’s customers or banks to pressure them, or offer anything of value to officials or to the other party’s staff.

7. Language

We work in English. You may write to us in Chinese by email or WeChat; we use translation tools or translators to read and answer. Where our agreements or this page exist in more than one language, the English version controls.

8. No guarantee; not legal advice

We do not guarantee any outcome. No recovery, no commission; monthly fees are payable regardless of outcome. Nothing we provide is legal, tax or customs advice; it is business information from a commercial consulting provider. Time limits for claims depend on your contracts and the facts; confirm them with counsel.

9. Taxes

Fees are stated in US dollars and exclusive of taxes. If the law of your country requires you to withhold tax from a payment to us, tell us before paying so we can agree how the withholding is handled.

10. Privacy supplement

This supplement adds to our Privacy Policy for CargoSettle.

• What we keep: your company and contact details (including a WeChat ID if you give one), the referral code of the agent who introduced you, and the documents and messages you send about a dispute, which may include names and contact details of people at the other parties.
• Why: to assess and work your file, communicate with the parties you authorize, screen for conflicts and sanctions, bill you, and meet legal obligations.
• Who processes it for us: hosting, database and document storage, email, payment processing, AI-assisted document reading, translation tools, and counsel you approve. We never sell your data.
• Where: our systems are in the United States. If you are outside the United States, sending us your details and documents means they are transferred to and processed in the United States; by using CargoSettle you agree to that transfer. Send only what the dispute needs.
• Your choices: ask for a copy, correction or deletion of your data at support@freightauditpilot.com. Retention follows our Privacy Policy, except where we must keep records of a file and its billing.

11. General

Sections 5 to 12 of our Website Terms of Use (acceptable use, documents, intellectual property, links, disclaimers and limitation of liability, indemnity, governing law and venue, changes) also apply to CargoSettle. We may update this page; the date at the top shows the latest version, and changes do not alter a signed agreement without your consent.