Promotional Content

Promotional content is an endorsement by someone with a financial or close personal connection to what they're endorsing. Because Customer Reviews are meant to give customers genuine product feedback from fellow shoppers, different guidelines apply to those features. The guidelines and examples below supplement our Community Guidelines regarding promotional content.

There are several ways in which products may be promoted to customers. In all cases, the poster must clearly disclose their financial or personal connection if not obvious from the context.

Note: For details on how promotional content is restricted, see Community Guidelines.

Promotional Content in Customer Reviews

Our goal is to capture all the energy, enthusiasm, and feedback (both favorable and critical) that customers have about a product while avoiding use of reviews to advertise, promote, or mislead.

To help illustrate, here are a few examples of reviews that we don't allow:

• A product brand posts a review of their own product
• A customer posts a review in exchange for cash, a free or discounted product, a gift certificate, or a discount off a future purchase provided by a third party
• A customer posts a review in exchange for entry into a contest or sweepstakes or membership in a program
• A customer posts a review of a game in exchange for bonus in-game content or credits
• A relative, close friend, business associate, or employee of the product creator posts a review to help boost sales
• A customer posts a review of the product after being promised a refund in exchange for the review
• A seller posts negative reviews about a competitor's product

Although products may be provided to customers for free or at a discount, and those customers may write reviews, any attempt to influence or manipulate reviews is prohibited, including conditioning any future benefit on writing a review or the content of the review. Benefits include but are not limited to: future opportunities to receive free or discounted products, continued membership in a program or club, cash rebates or gift certificates, entry into contests or sweepstakes, bonus digital content or credits, and ratings or referrals that may affect the recipient's chances of receiving other benefits.

Here are a few examples where a review is not permitted:

• The customer's eligibility to receive free or discounted products or other benefits in the future depends on their review
• The customer's continued membership in a program or club depends on their review
• The customer is a member of a review club where sellers or brands give the customer ratings or refer the customer to other sellers or brands based on their review
• The customer is a member of a review club where they are asked to register their IrriFinder public profile so that sellers or brands may monitor their reviews of products offered through the club

The following reviews are generally allowed, provided they comply with the above guidelines:

• A customer writes a review of a product purchased using a discount generally available to all IrriFinder customers
• A customer writes a review of a product received for free at a trade show, convention, or other similar venue where the provider does not monitor whether the customer writes a review or condition any benefits on writing a review or the content of the review

Other Promotional Content

Although promotional content is restricted in Customer Reviews as described above, there are other ways in which products may be promoted to customers. In all cases, the poster must clearly and conspicuously disclose their financial or close personal connection if not obvious from the context.

To help illustrate, here is an example:

Anyone may post comments on Customer Reviews as long as any financial or close personal connection to the product is clearly and conspicuously disclosed