Review integrity

Review policy and moderation standards

CheckShop reviews are designed to help consumers judge webshop trust and help honest merchants prove post-purchase customer experience. This policy explains what we collect, what we publish, and what we reject.

Trust score methodology Disputes and corrections

Verified purchase evidence

Invited reviews are linked to an order reference when the merchant sends invitations through Shopify, WooCommerce, payment, webhook, or API flows.

Source transparency

Imported reviews keep their source metadata where available. Native CheckShop reviews and imported reviews are handled as separate evidence streams.

Fraud and abuse checks

New public reviews can be rate-limited, analyzed for suspicious patterns, flagged, or held for manual review before publication.

Merchant response rights

Shops can respond to reviews, report reviews that violate policy, and use disputes or rechecks when public information needs correction.

What can be published

Real post-purchase experiences with a specific webshop

Balanced feedback about delivery, service, refunds, product condition, or communication

Reviews submitted through a valid invitation link or public review form

Merchant responses that add context without exposing unnecessary personal data

What is rejected or held

Fake, incentivized, duplicate, or competitor reviews

Reviews that contain threats, hate, doxxing, or irrelevant personal attacks

Content that publishes full payment data, passwords, or other sensitive information

Product-only feedback submitted as a shop review when no webshop experience is described

How we handle reported reviews

Shops can report a review. We never remove a review because it is negative, or because the shop disagrees with it.

What can be removed

Someone else's personal data, such as a name, address or phone number
Hate, threats or abusive language
Advertising or spam
A review about a different business
A review that clearly does not come from a customer, for example from a competitor
Claims that are provably false. Opinions are not removed.

What happens after a report

The shop reports the review and explains why.
We check the report. If it does not hold up, the review stays online.
If it may hold up, we email the reviewer. They see which shop reported the review and why.
The review stays online for 7 days while the reviewer can respond. Only someone else's personal data, hate and threats are taken offline right away.
If the reviewer responds, a person at CheckShop reads both sides and decides.
If the reviewer does not respond within 7 days, the review is hidden.

A shop's profile shows how many of its reviews were hidden this way.

Holding a low rating for a short time

Shops on the Business plan or higher can have a low rating held for a short time, at most 7 days, so they can contact the customer and try to fix the problem. The customer is told when the review goes live. If they do not change it, it goes live unchanged after that time.

Our rule in one sentence

We do not remove negative reviews for being negative. We only hide reviews that break the clear rules on this page, and the reviewer is told first and can object.

Moderation in numbers

Per month: reviews that went online, reports from shops, and what happened to them.

Month	New reviews online	Reports from shops	Report rejected, review stays online	Review hidden	Still being handled	Objections from reviewers
October 2026 (so far)	9	0	0	0	0	0

Why reviews were hidden

No reviews were hidden in this period.

The numbers cover reviews written on CheckShop and reports filed by shops since October 2026, when the current process started. Imported reviews are not included. A review that a buyer withdraws themselves is not counted as moderation. Updated every hour.

How complaints about a shop work

A buyer files a complaint about a listed shop, with details and evidence if they have it. Filing is free.
We check whether there is enough detail to pass it on to the shop.
The shop gets 14 days to respond.
We decide whether the complaint is resolved. A complaint that is not resolved is shown on the shop's public profile.

There is no limit on the number of complaints per shop or per year, on any plan.

Our mediation is not binding. For a binding decision, buyers can turn to a dispute resolution body or the consumer authority in their country.

File a complaint

Google and product-rating readiness

Seller ratings describe the shopping experience with a store. Product ratings describe a specific product. CheckShop stores optional product context on new invitations and verified reviews, but product-rating feeds should only be launched when product URL, product name, SKU, GTIN, MPN, or brand data is reliable enough for Google matching.

FAQ

Are all CheckShop reviews verified purchases?

No. Reviews created from invitations are treated as verified purchase reviews when they are linked to an order. Public reviews can still be accepted, but they may require moderation and are not the same evidence level.

Can merchants remove bad reviews?

No. Merchants can respond, report policy violations, or provide evidence in a dispute, but negative reviews are not removed just because they are negative.

Can imported reviews be used for Google Product Ratings?

Only when the review is tied to reliable product-level identifiers. Generic shop reviews should not be submitted as product reviews.

How does CheckShop protect consumers?

CheckShop combines review signals, shop monitoring, dispute handling, public trust scores, and moderation rules so shoppers can compare evidence before buying.