When you accept a supplier assessment, a new Possible duplicates step can appear after Import supplier data. It shows up when a partner or subcontractor that the supplier picked from the list has no tax ID on file yet, and the supplier gave it a tax ID that another supplier profile already holds.
For each pair you choose to keep the profiles separate (the default) or to merge the picked profile into the one that holds the tax ID. Before you decide, the step shows what will move: purchase orders, assessments (including how many are still open), certificates, locations, traceability steps and references in other assessments. It also lists, in red, the people who will gain Supplier Hub access through the merge.
When you merge, the profile with the tax ID keeps its name, tax ID and visibility setting, and takes over the other profile's contact emails, roles, locations, certificates, purchase orders, assessments and Supplier Hub users. A location both profiles had is kept once, and partner answers in other assessments now point to the remaining profile. The duplicate profile is then deleted and the Activity Log records the merge. If you keep them separate, the Activity Log notes the possible duplicate instead.
A merge can't be undone. The step covers partners and subcontractors picked from the list while accepting an assessment; a newly typed partner with a tax ID you already have is still linked to the existing supplier automatically. There is no merge action on the Suppliers list, so duplicate profiles created earlier aren't merged automatically.
This release also includes smaller fixes: supplier search matches contact emails when your search term contains "@", required fields on partner and subcontractor cards are marked with a red asterisk, Import supplier data shows full partner addresses including city-level ones, and the Add partner picker lists each linked partner once.
