business liability damages
Are dropservice suppliers liable for any damages to customers?
<p>I wanted to ask a question about the dropservice business model.</p>
<p>We have 3 figures, the customer, the supplier and us. Dropservice is a business model in which we can have services delivered to our customers by outside suppliers (such as freelancers)</p>
<p>If the supplier causes harm to the customer (such as in the case of unsavory advertising campaigns) who is responsible?</p>
<p>Since he was the one who provided the service, he should be responsible for anything he causes to the customer.
How can we wash our hands of all the mistakes the provider can do to our customers?</p>

<h2>it depends</h2>
<p>There's Alice, who wants some service. There's Bob, who offers it. And there's C-Corp, which offers to connect people that seek service with those that offer it.</p>
<p>The liability of C-Corp depends on many factors. Some that came up:</p>
<ul>
<li>Is Bob's service needing a license of sorts? C-Corp might be liable if they were warned that Bob lacks such or C-Corp represented that Bob had the license but did not.</li>
<li>Is C-Corp getting a fee for <em>referral/payment services only</em> or do they <em>manage or contract with</em> Bob in some way or another? If C-Corp manages Bob or has a work contract with them, they might be akin to a Builder that hires various contractors and who is liable to the buyer of the building and to whom the contractors owe liability for their work. If they <strong>just</strong> provide the connecting and payment service, that's not as easy, but they still might be liable to some degree.</li>
<li>What does the contract say? If they only provide a listing service like LinkedIn and specifically disclaim and point out that all listings are the contractor's making, they might be totally immune and have no liability.</li>
</ul>
