Expensive to get wrongUnited States

You may pay for a review, not for a good one

The same FTC rule prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives conditioned on a consumer review expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative, and states that the condition may be conveyed implicitly as well as expressly.

The common loyalty mechanic of points for a five-star review is the thing this prohibits, and “implicitly conveyed” means the wording of the email is the evidence.

95 of a possible 97Tier A, primary document or measured outcome. Nothing at this tier is allowed past 97, however good it looks.

Verified August 5, 2026Rechecked every 180 days, next by February 1, 2027.

Constraint

Held since October 21, 2024A rule, law or policy that limits what you may do or say. The earliest date we are willing to say this held. It may well have been true before that; we do not backdate a record past the evidence we have read. Supported, version 1.

This entry is wrong if

The FTC withdraws the sentiment-conditioning provision, or states that incentives conditioned on positive reviews are permitted.

Written before the record was published, not after. If you can show this, send it to hello@tryorbt.com and the correction goes on the record with the entry.

Evidence

Tier Aregulation
U.S. Federal Trade Commission: Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials
The final rule prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative. It clarifies that the conditional nature of the offer of compensation or incentive may be expressly or implicitly conveyed.
Read 2026-08-05 · Public domain · page hash 5b8afaf9a768

History

v1createdAugust 5, 2026
Initial entry from primary regulator text, read 2026-08-04.

Append-only. Nothing in this list is edited or removed once written, including the entries that record our own mistakes. Every change to every record is on the corrections page, and the same log is in entries.json under revisions.

reviews
incentives
loyalty
ftc
enforcement
compliance

Cite this entry

“You may pay for a review, not for a good one”, The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0, entry omr:us:review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment, retrieved September 9, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment. Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22679129

Orbt, "You may pay for a review, not for a good one," Orbt Market Index, entry omr:us:review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment, verified August 5, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment.

@misc{orbt-us-review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment,
  title        = {You may pay for a review, not for a good one},
  author       = {{Orbt}},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22679129},
  note         = {The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0 (dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22679129), entry omr:us:review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment. Verified 2026-08-05},
  howpublished = {\url{https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/us--review-incentives-cannot-be-conditioned-on-sentiment}},
  license      = {Orbt Index Public Licence. Free to quote and cite; not to redistribute}
}

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Evidence

History

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