This agreement seems to say that if you mystery shop for another company you are not eligible to work for them. How would you interpret? Please read the last sentence.

You agree to immediately disclose any conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest that may preclude you from conducting an unbiased assignment for Interactions. You shall immediately inform Interactions - if you are offered or have accepted an assignment where a conflict of interest exists. Examples of conflicts of interest, by way of example, but not limited to: you, your spouse, a member of your immediate family, a relative, a friend or roommate is currently employed or has been employed by one of our clients. You, your spouse, a member of your immediate family, a relative, a friend or roommate is currently employed or has been employed in the last 5 years by a company that would be considered direct competition to one of our clients. You, your spouse, a member of your immediate family, a relative, a friend or roommate is currently employed by a market research firm or mystery shopping company.

You are misinterpreting "employed." As an Independent Contractor you are not an employee of another MSC. You are the equivalent of vendor and MSCs are your clients.

Examples of conflicts of interest by way of example, but not limited to:

you, your spouse, a member of your immediate family, a relative, a friend or roommate is currently employed or has been employed by one of our clients.

= This pretty standard.=


You, your spouse, a member of your immediate family, a relative, a friend or roommate is currently employed or has been employed in the last 5 years by a company that would be considered direct competition to one of our clients.

= Not quite as standard, although several MSCs have a clause similar to this, particularly if their clients are fast food restaurants.=

You, your spouse, a member of your immediate family, a relative, a friend or roommate is currently employed by a market research firm or mystery shopping company.

= If you or any member of your immediately family, relative, friend or roommate is a direct employee of a market research firm or mystery shopping company (for example, a scheduler, editor, etc., who is directly employed by an MSC), this would apply. If you are a mystery shopper performing assignments as an independent contractor, this clause would not apply to you because you are not considered to be employed the mystery shopping company. If you are a subject participating in market research, you are not considered to be employed by the market research company.

Lisa is correct, we are not employees of the MSC, we are independant contractors. Also, in the case where we receive assignments for the same location by two different MSCs for doing the same shop, it would be a conflict of interest for us to do that shop once and submit reports and documentation to both MSCs.

Thanks everyone for clarifying!