Review Policy

Draft status

DRAFT FOR LEGAL REVIEW. This text has not yet been approved by TargetBay counsel and is not in effect. Enrollment stays closed until approved versions are published.

1. Purpose and standard

This policy sets the rules for every review collected through the TargetBay Sampling Community and every review TargetBay moderates for publication on Brand sites and retailers. It meets the Walmart Enterprise Ratings and Reviews moderation standard, which applies to Walmart.com and Sam's Club, and the FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials. Where a Destination's rules are stricter, its rules also apply. TargetBay will always follow FTC requirements and Destination standards over any Brand or member request.

2. Who can review

• Members can review only a product they received through a campaign, after confirming it arrived and after the trial period in their offer.
• Reviewers must be adults. Any review that indicates the reviewer is a child under 13 is rejected, and Community membership is limited to people 18 and older.
• Reviews are accepted in English only, because that is the language we moderate. Reviews in other languages are rejected.

3. Badging and disclosure

• Incentivized reviews: every Community review comes from a free product, so it carries a clear and conspicuous disclosure in the review and an incentivized badge wherever it is published.
• Material relationships: a review from anyone with a material connection to the company that makes or sells the product, such as an employee, is badged as an employee or associate review, or not accepted.
• No sentiment conditions: incentives are never conditioned on a positive or negative opinion, a star rating, or any particular wording.
• Approved programs only: reviews are syndicated to Walmart only through incentive programs Walmart has approved and only through TargetBay as an approved syndication provider.

4. Authenticity

• Each review must reflect the reviewer's own honest experience with the specific product they received. We verify receipt and use through campaign records, product verification codes, and attestations before publication, and continue to monitor after publication.
• Rejected: reviews that are fake, deceptive, or manipulated; reviews generated by AI that do not reflect a real experience; reviews copied from other marketplaces or sites; and reviews about a different product.
• Moderation and display never favor positive reviews or suppress negative ones. Any evidence of sentiment based suppression is reported to the affected Destination and the related reviews are withdrawn.
• Reviews are shared only with the original item reviewed, or with variants that differ in ways that do not matter to a purchase decision, such as color, count, size, or flavor.

5. Content that is rejected

A review is rejected if it contains any of the following. Each rule applies equally to positive and negative reviews.

• Personal information: a full name, phone number, physical address, or email address, or any Social Security, passport, driver's license, taxpayer, financial account, or credit card number.
• Confidential information: trade secrets or privileged or confidential commercial or financial information.
• Duplicate or empty content: the same review submitted by one or more people, or a submission with no text and no rating. Short, common phrases such as "Love this" are not treated as duplicates.
• Inappropriate content: libelous, harassing, abusive, obscene, vulgar, or sexually explicit language.
• Discriminatory content: content that is discriminatory or prejudicial toward race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, disability, or another protected class.
• Illegal activity: drug references or references to other illegal activity.
• Links and promotions: links or URLs to other websites, social media handles, tags, or links, promo codes, and advertising.
• Health and safety claims: recommending use that differs from the product's label or directions, unsupported medical, health, safety, or performance claims, claims of scientific or clinical proof, or medical advice. For example: "This cured my anxiety" or "Take twice the labeled dose for faster results."
• False or misleading statements: content that is clearly false or misleading, such as an impossible claim about what the product did.
• Irrelevant content: content wholly unrelated to the product, including ads. Comments about shipping and customer service are relevant to the experience and are allowed. Comments only about a third party website, such as login problems, with no product feedback, are rejected.
• Incongruent rating: a star rating that plainly contradicts the text, such as one star with "I love everything about this."

6. Photos and videos

All rules above apply to photos and videos. Media must show the product being reviewed and may not include copyrighted material, another person's likeness, watermarks, or promotional overlays, nudity including partial nudity, or obscene or profane content. Videos are moderated for speech, background audio, and on screen text. Images or videos generated or altered by AI, including filters and augmented reality, and stock images or videos are rejected. Photo and video reviews are not yet open in the Community.

7. How moderation works

Trained TargetBay staff review every submission before it is approved. Decisions use the reasons above, recorded with the reviewer, date, and revision. A low rating or criticism is never a reason for rejection. Where a fixable issue is found, such as personal information, we ask the member to correct only that part, and the member's rating and opinion stay their own. Every version is kept.

8. Publication

Approval in the Community is separate from publication. Each Brand and retailer applies its own rules and may decline content, and we never promise that a review will appear on any specific site. A Destination's decision does not count against the reviewer.

9. Questions and appeals

If you disagree with a moderation decision, contact community-support@targetbay.com within 30 days and a different staff member will review it.