E-commerce has created a new category of commercial relationship: sellers listing on marketplaces, brands supplying to quick-commerce platforms, and logistics partners delivering for them. These relationships run on standard-form agreements that almost always include an arbitration clause.
Common disputes include withheld settlements, penalties and chargebacks, account suspension, commission and fee disputes, lost or damaged inventory in fulfilment centres, and returns reconciliation. The amounts involved per seller are often moderate, but they can be critical to a small business's cash flow.
Sellers should check where the arbitration is seated and who appoints the arbitrator. Standard-form clauses sometimes favour the platform on both counts. Clauses that allow one party alone to appoint the sole arbitrator have been held by the Supreme Court to offend the principles of equality and impartiality, and such appointments can be challenged.
Online and documents-only arbitration is especially well suited to these disputes. The evidence is almost entirely digital — dashboards, settlement reports, emails and order data — and virtual hearings avoid travel for sellers based far from the platform's headquarters.
For sellers, the most important practical step is record-keeping: download settlement reports, screenshots of account notices and inventory reconciliation regularly, because access to platform dashboards may be restricted once a dispute begins.