Dispute

Dispute is an action that does not normally happen.

In complicated cases, when either side has failed to fulfill the contract terms, the dispute action is taken. There are two types of disputes available for both parties of the Zenland contract: simple and escalated.

Simple disputes are settled between the parties without external help, while escalated disputes require the Zenland agent's* assistance.

The dispute action may be taken for any of the following reasons:

• the due date has passed and the Contractor (seller) did not deliver the product/service,

• the due date has passed and the Contractor is not responding to messages/emails,

• the Contractor has been given extra time to fulfill the order (after the due date), but failed to deliver it,

• the product/service has been delivered on time but does not correspond to the contract terms.

Once the order has been completed by the Contractor, the Contractee (buyer) will have time to check and approve the delivery. This time is known as buyer protection time. At any point during this time, the Contractee is able to dispute the case for the reasons listed above.

The dispute request** will stop the buyer protection time countdown, and prevent the Contractor from releasing funds by the end of it. The purpose of doing so is to let the Contractee reach out to the other party to discuss disagreements and settle the issue between the two parties.

If disagree with the Contractee's claims, the Contractor can respond with a counteraction and Invite an Agent. This is dispute escalation that is fully described in the next chapter. Like other contract actions, all disputes can be traced via the Contract Chat.

The Contract Chat is recommended to discuss claims and disagreements that the parties may have. The information there provides the details for the agent to resolve the case in case of dispute escalation.

Good to know

* Zenland agent is a contract-neutral third party, a verified individual who signs an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and is trusted with the case. Read agent-assisted disputes in detail in the "Invite an Agent" chapter.

**Dispute is a blockchain transaction that changes the contract state and requires a gas fee to be paid to the nodes processing it. More on gas fees and why they exist can be found in "What is Network".