Supplier Terms and Conditions

1About these terms

These terms govern your company's use of the Cortado supplier portal (the "Portal") and its participation in tenders issued by CORTADO ENGINEERING CONSULTANT L.L.C, a single-owner limited liability company holding Dubai trade license no. 1037592, Office 1059, Business Bay, Dubai, United Arab Emirates ("Cortado", "we"). By registering, the authorized person accepts these terms on behalf of the company and everyone who uses the Portal for it, including its employees, partners and subcontractors ("Supplier", "you").

2Registration and approval

1. Registration is free. You must hold a valid UAE trade license and register through a person authorized to bind the company.
2. Cortado may verify any information, request more documents, and approve, reject or suspend any registration at its sole discretion, without having to give reasons.
3. Approval does not guarantee that you will be invited to, or awarded, any tender.

3Your information and documents

1. You confirm that all details and documents you provide are true, complete, valid and your own, and you will update them promptly if they change or expire.
2. You are responsible for everything done through your account. Keep your password private, do not share the account, and tell us at once of any unauthorized use.
3. Providing false, expired or misleading information entitles Cortado to remove you from the supplier list and disqualify any bid, without refund.

4Tenders

1. A tender is an invitation to submit offers. It is not an offer by Cortado or its client to enter into a contract.
2. Cortado decides which suppliers can see each tender, and may change, extend, suspend or cancel a tender at any time before award.
3. Cortado may issue addenda that change or clarify the tender documents at any time before award. Every addendum becomes part of the tender, and it is your responsibility to read it; the Portal shows it on the tender page and emails it to participating suppliers.
4. Cortado may, at its sole discretion, open a further pricing round for all participating suppliers, or ask one or more suppliers individually to clarify or revise their bid, without inviting the others and without giving reasons.
5. Cortado manages the evaluation at its sole discretion, including how and when bids are reviewed, compared, clarified and negotiated.
6. Cortado is not obliged to accept the lowest bid or any bid, to split or not split works, or to explain its decision.
7. A contract exists only when a written contract or purchase order is signed by Cortado or its client. A notice on the Portal is not a contract.

5Entry fees

1. Some tenders carry an entry fee, shown in AED before you pay. Paying it gives your company, and only your company, access to that tender's documents and the right to submit one bid.
2. Entry fees are non-refundable, including if you do not bid, withdraw your bid, are disqualified or are not awarded.
3. If Cortado cancels a tender before award, the entry fee is refunded in full: card payments are refunded automatically to the same card, and bank transfers are refunded by transfer to your company's account, normally within 14 working days. The refund is the only amount Cortado owes you for the cancellation.
4. If you are charged twice, or more than the stated fee, for the same tender, the extra amount is refunded to the original payment method once Cortado confirms it.
5. Card payments are processed by a third-party payment provider; Cortado does not store your card details. Bank transfers count as paid only once Cortado confirms receipt.

6Bids

1. Your price is confidential: other suppliers never see it.
2. You may change or withdraw your bid until the deadline. Each submission is saved as a new version with its time and a digital fingerprint of every attached file. The latest version you submit before the deadline is your bid; earlier versions are kept as a record.
3. After the deadline, your price and files can no longer be changed, and your bid is binding for the validity period stated in the tender documents, or 90 days if none is stated.
4. If Cortado opens a further round or asks you to revise, you may submit a new version until that round's deadline. If you do not, your last bid stands and remains binding.
5. All costs of preparing and submitting a bid, including site visits, are yours, whatever the outcome.
6. Cortado is not responsible for bids that arrive late or incomplete for any reason, including internet or system failure. Submit early.

7Copyright and ownership of tender material

1. All tender material, meaning drawings, designs, models, calculations, specifications, bills of quantities, reports, photographs and any other document or file made available through the Portal or in connection with a tender, is the intellectual property of Cortado or its client and is protected by UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021 on Copyrights and Neighbouring Rights and by international copyright law.
2. Cortado grants you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable permission to view, download and print the tender material solely to prepare and submit your bid for that specific tender. No other right or licence is given, and no ownership passes to you.
3. You must not copy, reproduce, adapt, modify, redraw, trace, translate, sell, publish, upload, post on social media, use for any other project or client, or use to compete with Cortado, any tender material or any part of it, in whole or in part, without Cortado's prior written consent.
4. You must not remove or alter any copyright notice, logo, title block, watermark or reference number on the tender material.
5. Being awarded a tender does not give you any right to the design. Any use of tender material for construction is governed solely by the signed contract.

8Confidentiality and non-disclosure

1. The existence and content of every tender, the tender material, the identity of Cortado's client and the project, and any information shared with you during the tender are confidential.
2. You may share them only with your own employees, and with subcontractors or suppliers you need for pricing, on a need-to-know basis, and only after they are bound by confidentiality duties at least as strict as these. You are fully responsible for any breach by them.
3. You must not disclose them to any other bidder, competitor, consultant, developer, the media or any third party, and must not use them for any purpose other than your bid.
4. Within 14 days of the tender closing (if you did not bid) or of being told you were not awarded, you must delete or destroy all copies of the tender material, including digital copies held by your staff and subcontractors, and confirm this in writing if Cortado asks.
5. These duties continue for five years after the tender closes, or for as long as the information remains confidential, whichever is longer, and survive the closing of your account.
6. These duties do not apply to information that is already public through no fault of yours, or that a UAE court or authority lawfully orders you to disclose, provided you tell Cortado first where the law allows.

9Fair conduct

You will not collude with other bidders, fix or share prices, offer gifts or payments to any Cortado staff or client representative, contact Cortado's client directly about a tender, or hide a conflict of interest. Any breach entitles Cortado to disqualify your bids, terminate any resulting contract, exclude you from future tenders, and report the matter to the relevant authorities.

10Limitation of liability

1. The Portal is provided "as is". We aim to keep it available but do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted or error-free.
2. To the fullest extent the law allows, Cortado is not liable for any loss of profit, business, opportunity or data, or any indirect or consequential loss.
3. Cortado's total liability to you in connection with any tender is limited to the entry fee you paid for that tender.
4. Nothing in these terms limits your liability for breach of sections 7 or 8, fraud, or wilful misconduct.

11Indemnity

You will compensate Cortado, its client and its staff in full for any claim, loss, damage, fine or cost, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your breach of these terms, false information you provided, or any copying, sharing or misuse of tender material by you or anyone you shared it with.

12Enforcement and remedies

1. You accept that a breach of sections 7 or 8 would cause Cortado and its client serious harm that money alone may not repair. Cortado may therefore seek urgent orders from the competent courts to stop or prevent a breach, in addition to any other remedy.
2. Cortado reserves the right to take civil and criminal action under UAE law, including the copyright law and Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021 on Combatting Rumours and Cybercrimes, against any supplier or person who copies, shares or misuses tender material, and to claim full compensation for all damages, including loss of fees and reputational harm.
3. You will reimburse Cortado's reasonable costs of enforcing these terms, including legal, expert and court fees.
4. Any breach also entitles Cortado to suspend or close your account immediately, disqualify all your bids, withhold any refund, and exclude your company from future tenders.
5. Cortado's failure or delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.

13Records and evidence

The Portal records who signs in, which documents each account views or downloads, every version of every bid with its time and the digital fingerprint (SHA-256) of each file, the exact NDA document accepted, and each acceptance of these terms with its time and connection details. Tender documents may carry visible or hidden marks identifying the account that downloaded them. You agree that these electronic records are valid evidence of your actions and acceptances, in line with UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 46 of 2021 on Electronic Transactions and Trust Services.

14Personal data

We collect company details and the authorized person's identity document to verify suppliers and manage tenders, in line with UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data. We share them only with our service providers (hosting, email, payments) and our clients where a tender requires it, never for marketing by others. We keep them while your account is active and afterwards for as long as UAE law requires. You can ask us to see, correct or delete your data at [email protected].

15Suspension and closing your account

You may close your account at any time by emailing us. Cortado may suspend or close your account if you breach these terms, your documents expire, or the Portal is discontinued. Sections 6 to 13 and 17 survive closure.

16Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we do, the Portal will show you the new version and ask you to accept it before you can continue; each acceptance is recorded. Changes do not alter the entry fee of a tender you have already joined.

17Governing law and courts

These terms are governed by the federal laws of the United Arab Emirates as applied in the Emirate of Sharjah. The courts of Sharjah have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, without limiting Cortado's right to seek urgent orders in any competent court. If these terms are ever translated, the English version prevails.