Certification of the Pattern Test for PL‑001: All Five Tests Met

Subject: Certification of the pattern test for PL-001 (all five tests met)

1. Purpose and finding

1.This note records the Platform Council’s finding that the evidence assembled for PL-001 meets all five parts of the Reseated pattern test: Volume, Frequency, Consistency, Spread and Corroboration. The finding is a determination that the issue is sufficiently repeated and distributed to proceed to the next stage of the Assembly’s process. It is not a finding that every report is accurate, that every reported event has the same cause, or that any particular platform has acted improperly.

2.PL-001 concerns protections for business users before an account suspension, listing removal, payout hold or fee change: written notice, a specific reason, review by a person, and a time limit on payout holds, with the same protections in every country where a platform operates. The Council’s records classify reports principally as account-suspended and funds-held. They therefore support certification of a recurring pattern involving account access and funds, but do not separately count listing removals or fee changes.

3.As of 12 May 2026, the Platform Council comprised 200 members from 44 countries and had received 947 reports from 50 countries. The full Assembly had 641 seated members in 49 countries and had received 1,623 reports from 50 countries. The number of reports is not treated as a count of unique businesses, unique incidents or independently verified events.

2. Method and scope

4.The review applies the five-part pattern test to the Platform Council evidence recorded on the date of this note. It uses the recorded totals and classifications without extrapolating to unreported businesses, companies, countries or types of harm. The Platform Council’s interim pattern review, RC/PL/2026/N.1, addressed the volume and frequency of suspensions and payout holds. This note makes the certification decision at the conclusion of the review stage.

5.For clarity and reproducibility, the thresholds below are the operational thresholds applied in this certification. They are screening tests for whether an issue warrants a draft fix and consultation. They are not statistical claims about prevalence in the wider economy, nor do they replace assessment of individual evidence. Where Council records do not provide a more detailed breakdown, that limitation is stated rather than filled by estimation.

6.The unit counted in the headline evidence is a report filed with Reseated and assigned to the Platform Council. Reports may describe different incidents or concern connected events. The report count is used as a measure of the scale of incoming evidence, not as a verified number of separate affected businesses.

3. Results against the five tests

3.1 Volume

7.Threshold. The volume test is met where the Council has at least 100 reports within the issue area under review. This threshold is intended to distinguish a substantial body of evidence from a small number of isolated accounts; it does not imply that every report has been substantiated.

8.Finding. The Platform Council had 947 reports. The total exceeds the operational threshold. The Council had 200 members from 44 countries, while reports came from 50 countries. Membership and reporting geography are different measures and are not conflated.

9.Decision. Met. The reported volume is sufficient to support continued institutional consideration of PL-001. The aggregate does not establish how many reports are complete, how many concern distinct businesses, or how many would meet an evidentiary standard in an individual dispute.

3.2 Frequency

10.Threshold. The frequency test is met where at least 100 reports are recorded in the latest available 30-day reporting window and the issue has also been the subject of an earlier pattern review. This test asks whether evidence is arriving over time, rather than appearing only as a single concentrated batch. The test does not claim a constant rate across all preceding months.

11.Finding. The Platform Council recorded 334 reports in the last 30 days, as reported on 12 May 2026. The issue was also examined in the interim pattern review RC/PL/2026/N.1, dated 23 April 2026. The latest 30-day figure is more than three times the operational threshold.

12.Decision. Met. The record demonstrates current reporting activity and an earlier review of the same broad pattern. The Council does not infer a monthly trend, a rate of acceleration or a continuous level of reporting between the review dates.

3.3 Consistency

13.Threshold. The consistency test is met where reports recur in at least two recognizable event categories within the issue area and those categories are capable of being addressed by a common procedural standard. Consistency in this test means a recurring problem suitable for examination through a shared rule; it does not mean that all incidents have identical facts or causes.

14.Finding. The reported situations include 528 account-suspended reports and 419 funds-held reports. Both categories concern a business user’s ability to access an account, use a service or obtain funds, and both can be examined against procedural safeguards concerning notice, reasons, human review and the duration of a restriction. The two recorded categories account for the 947 Platform Council reports.

15.Decision. Met. Recurrence across both categories supports consideration of a common procedural response. The classifications do not establish whether an account suspension and a funds hold occurred in the same incident, whether listing removal or fee change was also involved, or which particular safeguard was absent in each report. The certification is accordingly about consistency at the pattern level, not uniformity of individual cases.

3.4 Spread

16.Threshold. The spread test is met where reports originate in at least 10 countries and the recorded country distribution demonstrates presence in at least three broad world regions. This threshold is a geographic-diversity screen. It does not require equal numbers of reports from each region and does not measure the share of businesses affected in any country.

17.Finding. Platform Council reports came from 50 countries. The eight countries for which report counts are stated include countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. These named countries alone therefore establish a minimum spread across three broad regions; the remaining 42 reporting countries are not assigned to regions in this note.

18.Decision. Met. The country count exceeds the threshold, and the country-level data demonstrate presence in at least three broad regions. The regional table below groups only the eight named countries. It is not a complete regional distribution and does not allocate the residual reports to regions.

3.5 Corroboration

19.Threshold. The corroboration test is met where the report base exceeds 100 and is supported by recurrence across at least 20 reporting countries and more than one classified situation category. This is an internal, cross-report corroboration threshold. It does not mean that reports have been independently audited or that corroboration by a regulator, court, platform or other external body has been established.

20.Finding. The record contains 947 Platform Council reports from 50 countries, with 528 account-suspended reports and 419 funds-held reports. It also includes the earlier interim pattern review RC/PL/2026/N.1. The country, category and review records provide multiple forms of internal consistency for the existence of a reportable pattern.

21.Decision. Met, on the internal threshold stated above. This is internal corroboration of a reportable pattern, not independent verification of every account in the dataset.

4. Data tables

4.1 Reports by country

22.The eight countries with the highest report counts are listed below. The residual is calculated by subtracting these eight counts from the Platform Council total. It is shown only as a combined figure; the remaining country counts are not included in the table.

4.2 Regional view of the named country counts

23.This table groups only the eight country counts above by broad region. It is a minimum regional view of the named-country data, not a complete allocation of all reports. The 483 residual reports are left unallocated because they are not broken down by country here.

4.3 Reports by situation

24.The situation counts below are the two classifications recorded for the Platform Council dataset. No separate values are recorded for listing removals or fee changes. The total matches the Platform Council report count.

4.4 Team size

25.The Council records the team-size figures as percentages. No counts are calculated from these percentages.

4.5 Reports by month or reporting window

26.The only time-based quantity used for this certification is the number of reports in the last 30 days, recorded as of 12 May 2026. It is reported below as a rolling window, not assigned to a calendar month.

5. Limitations

27.This certification assesses the aggregate pattern. It does not establish the identity or number of distinct businesses behind the reports, determine whether multiple reports relate to the same event, or independently test the accuracy of individual accounts or the completeness of the reporting system.

28.Country counts show where reports were filed or attributed in the dataset; they do not establish the place where a platform, business or event is located. The distinction between the Platform Council’s 200 members in 44 countries and reports from 50 countries is preserved throughout.

29.The team-size percentages describe the recorded distribution only. They are not converted into counts or used to infer representation rates.

30.The two recorded situation categories are account suspension and funds held. Listing removals and fee changes are within the scope of PL-001 but are not separately quantified here. The 947-report total is not a count of suspensions, payout holds, listing removals or fee changes individually.

31.The spread finding is supported by the reported presence across 50 countries and the named-country distribution. The regional table is intentionally incomplete: it groups only the named country values and leaves the residual unallocated. No report count for Africa, Oceania or any other region is asserted in this note.

32.Corroboration here means patterned support within the Council’s report record and its review process. It is not external corroboration and should not be described as a finding by a public authority, a court or a company.

6. Conclusion and next steps

33.On the operational thresholds set out in this note, all five tests are met: Volume, Frequency, Consistency, Spread and Corroboration. The central quantitative basis is 947 Platform Council reports from 50 countries, including 334 reports in the latest 30-day window and recorded situations spanning account suspension and funds held. The finding warrants the next procedural stage; it is not a determination of liability or a final assessment of the proposed standard.

34.The next step is preparation of a draft fix responsive to the scope of the evidence and the PL-001 agenda. The draft should distinguish safeguards applicable before suspension, listing removal, payout hold and fee change; state the information to be provided to a business user; address review by a person; and specify a time limit for payout holds. It should also address consistent application

across countries without claiming that this pattern review establishes the legal requirements in every jurisdiction.

35.Any draft should be tested against the stated limitations. In particular, the Council should seek report-level cross-tabulations where available, clarify the basis of team-size figures, preserve the distinction between a report and a unique incident, and avoid presenting the rolling 30-day figure as a monthly trend. The public consultation should invite evidence that can confirm, qualify or challenge the pattern and should make clear which parts of the proposal are supported by the current classifications.

36.Following consultation, the relevant Assembly process remains: review the evidence, revise the draft where warranted, submit the text to an Assembly ballot, and, if adopted, send letters to the CEOs able to adopt the standard. This note records only the pattern-test stage. It does not pre-empt consultation, an Assembly decision or any subsequent correspondence.

Certification: For the reasons set out above, the Rapporteur records that PL-001 meets all five parts of the Reseated pattern test as of 12 May 2026, subject to the scope and limitations stated in this note.