Content Moderation Guidelines

At Feefo, we believe genuine and honest reviews are the only way to ensure consumers can trust the brands and businesses they use every day. So, every time you see the Feefo logo, you know that the reviews you’re seeing can be relied upon to make those all-important decisions.

However, there are extreme cases where we need to step in to either remove, or edit, a review content if it violates one of our strict criteria. 

• Litigious comments
  When a consumer leaves a review that claims, without evidence, illegal or fraudulent behaviour, i.e. that a business or consumer is engaged in dangerous practices, is a liar, or scam; or that they are selling fake goods or services. This list is not definitive and could include where actual court action or litigation is referred to within the content. We would also remove comments where a transaction was not accepted because of a fraud check - in this instance, evidence would need to be provided by the merchant

• Profanity
  Swearing of any kind is not permitted. The Feefo platform has built-in profanity filters that will automatically star out certain words on all public facing pages. Depending on severity and frequency of the swearing, all of the content may be removed from public view.

• Discriminatory comments 
  Any comments of a discriminatory nature will result in removal of the content – this includes, but is not limited to, racism, homophobia, sexism, or xenophobia.

• Irrelevant content
  Where the content is completely unrelated to the transaction in question, is about Feefo, or clearly about the wrong company or product, the content will be removed. Content may also be removed where a business only collects service reviews and a product review has been left by a customer, or vice versa.

• Inappropriate media content
  Where user-generated content, such as videos or images, contain nudity, or visible words or representations that fall into any of the other criteria for removal; or where minors, that are not the main subject of the review content, are depicted.

• Requested by content owner
  If an author has specifically requested that their content be removed from public view, and direct evidence can be provided for the request, Feefo will remove the review in question.

• Personal information
  Where specific individuals are named, or any identifiable details left such as telephone numbers, vehicle registration numbers, order reference numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, bank details etc. These specific pieces of identifiable information will be removed by Feefo but will not necessarily result in the content in its entirety being removed unless other criteria for immediate removal are met.

• Poor quality/spam
  If content is illegible, contains a series of random or unreadable characters, is obviously spam, or contains URLs, it will be removed. This does not include reviews where no comments have been left at all. Reviewers are entitled to leave a star rating with no accompanying content.

• False content
  Where it can be proved on a balance of probabilities that the author has left factually incorrect content.

• Competitor comments
  Any comments that intentionally try to direct customers away from the business being reviewed to a direct competitor website, will be removed.

• Intellectual property / copyright material
  Some businesses have third parties, where it could cause damage to their company if certain details were made publicly available. Any content that infringe IP or copyright will be removed upon request.

• Reviews left in the wrong section of feedback form
  i.e. a service review in the product section, or vice versa. These will be removed, as incorrect information in each section has an adverse effect on Feefo’s integrations. Where there is found to be a mix of product and service reviews in the same box, any request to remove negative reviews will prompt an audit of the account to ensure that all reviews conform to the same standard.

• Incorrect uploads
  If a merchant uploads incorrect sales data, or sales data that has already been uploaded, content related to these uploads will be removed; and advice given on how to upload again correctly.

• Reviews not in desired language
  In some cases, we will remove content that is not in the desired language of the client. This will be pre-agreed with our client and apply to foreign language reviews be they positive or negative.

• Breaching Ts&Cs
  Content that references something that is in violation of a merchant’s terms and conditions (i.e. about shipping overseas when merchant does not).

• Negative comments
  If a negative review isn’t in violation of any of the criteria for removal then it will NOT be removed.

• Negative reviews and opinions
  Even if the merchant has satisfactorily resolved the issue in the original review, the negative sentiment or opinion expressed in the original review will not be removed, unless specifically requested by the reviewer. Best practice is for the business to reply to the reviewer with a solution via Feefo.

• Star rating is incorrect
  Reviews where the star ratings left by the reviewer doesn’t match the comments left in the review. For example, if a reviewer scores a merchant 1 out of 5 but leaves a wholly positive comment. If this occurs, we recommend replying to the review to ask if the correct score was left.

• Spelling errors
  Content that include spelling or punctuation errors.

• ‘Unfair’ reviews
  Content that represents the legitimate opinion of the consumer but are viewed as ‘unfair’ by the business, unless they meet other criteria for removal, will NOT be removed.

• Cancelled orders
  If any transaction has happened, a consumer will be able to leave feedback based on their experience, even if the order has been cancelled. For example, if a consumer cancels their order because the customer service was poor.

• Competitor reviews
  If a competitor leaves a legitimate review after they have made a purchase, then they are just as entitled to leave a review as any other customer.

• Not ‘useful’
  Where a business feels that the review isn’t “useful” or “beneficial”.

• After a refund
  Where a business has subsequently refunded the consumer – the consumer has still made a purchase and experienced service from the business, and therefore is entitled to leave a review based on their experience.

• No warning
  If a consumer didn’t complain to the merchant before leaving their review.

• Item not received
  Where a consumer has not received their item but left a review about their experience (unless it can be proved that they have in fact received the item in question).

*Examples on this page are not necessarily exhaustive.