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Transparency
Charter

This Transparency Charter describes the characteristics for the control of reviews during the collection, moderation and publication of Verified Reviews' reviews in order to ensure their authenticity.

1. Customer Review collection process

1.1. Description of the collection process

Verified Reviews undertakes at the time of collection, not to select consumers based on their type or frequency of purchases. All consumers will therefore be surveyed. Each review is linked to a contactable consumer.

The consumer will have the opportunity to submit a review for a period of three (3) months following the invitation sent by email by Verified Reviews, itself resulting from an act of consumption. The possibility for a consumer to issue a customer review following an act of consumption is therefore limited in time. In addition, the consumer who has submitted a review can modify it for a period of three (3) months after writing his review. Beyond this period of three (3) months, he may only request the withdrawal of his review.

Finally, a request for a review may be sent to the consumer on presentation of a proof of purchase in his name, provided that this act of consumption has been carried out within the last 12 (twelve) months. The possibility for a consumer to issue a customer review, following an act of consumption is therefore limited in time.

Verified Reviews has in its database elements allowing it to identify the consumer and to certify their act of consumption. It is recalled that Verified Reviews acts as a third party.

By default, no consideration is provided in exchange for submitting customer reviews, except for reviews clearly marked as such.

1.2. Process for identifying the Reviewer

The Verified Reviews' solution is based on the collection of reviews after orders. Requests for reviews are therefore linked to a consumer experience and to a clearly identified consumer. Identification can be done by email, telephone or any other means allowing direct contact with the consumer.

1.3. Content and control of Reviews and comments collected

Verified Reviews is a trusted third party that guarantees complete transparency with regard to brands and consumers.

Verified Reviews undertakes to transmit and publish information, ratings and comments in a strictly identical manner to those it collects, with the exception of any mention and declaration of an illegal or unlawful nature. 

It should be explicitly noted that the content of comments must not be in contravention of the laws and regulations currently in force. In particular, racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, defamatory or offensive remarks, which infringe on a person's privacy, reproduce private exchanges, use works protected by copyright (text, photos, videos, etc.) are illegal. 

Verified Reviews does not intervene in any way in the existing relationship between the brand and the consumer.

Verified Reviews verifies the origin of the reviews generated, in particular by means of the identified IP address.

However, it cannot guarantee the perfect functioning of its evaluation system, because of the inherent hazards thereof, and in particular the risks of intrusion, embezzlement, viruses, and fraud, present in a computer and digital system.

2. Customer Review Moderation Process

2.1. Description of the Moderation process 

Moderation is a process that occurs prior to the publication of a review which aims to guarantee the compliance of the content collected under French law and the ISO 20488 standard as well as with this Verified Reviews' Transparency Charter.

Verified Reviews undertakes to comply with all of these provisions in order to preserve the reliability of the published customer reviews published, and reserves the right to contact the authors of reviews for verification purposes.

Thus, during the moderation process, Verified Reviews publishes or rejects reviews when this is justifiable.

The rejection of a review is a manual action by the Verified Reviews' moderators after receiving notification of the review in question.

All persons and actions linked to the moderation are identified and can be traced back.

The same moderation period applies to all reviews, whether these are positive or negative.

2.2. Roles and resources of moderators 

Moderation is carried out by IT tools and individuals designated as "moderators".

These moderators are part of the Verified Reviews teams, and cannot be in a situation of conflict of interest with the rated brands.

 

The required capabilities and the necessary means to hold the role of moderator are:

 

Have a perfect command of the language in which the review was written. This skill must have been objectively validated before taking up the post, equivalent to a "Proficiency" type level of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (level C2 of the CEFR); 
Access the full content of the customer review collected; 
Access the elements relating to the identity of the writer collected during submission of the reviews in order to be able to contact the writer, if necessary; 
Access all information relating to the history of the review submission (number of submissions of the same notice after initial rejection); 
Access the history of information about the writer (number of reviews published, subject of previous reviews); 
Be able to entrust - in a traceable manner - the moderation of a customer review to another moderator.

2.3. Automatic and manual moderation

The moderation process is split into two stages: automatic moderation followed by manual moderation.
During the first stage, called automatic moderation, the content of the reviews is checked and the reviews are placed in moderation in the following cases:

 

The rating of the review is equal to or less than 2 (threshold can be modified in the brand's back office);
The review contains personal data identifiable by the system; 
The review contains insults, profanity, or potentially problematic words; 
The review contains five identical characters.

 

These reviews thus placed in moderation within the back office allow brands to easily identify and respond to potentially problematic reviews.

At the same time, during automatic moderation, some reviews are flagged to Verified Reviews' moderators for manual examination when:

 

The review contains personal data identifiable by the system;

The review contains insults or profanity.

 

For other cases, it will be up to the brand to report the review that it considers problematic to the Verified Reviews' moderators during the next stage.

 

After automatic moderation, manual moderation is performed:

 

On the one hand, because of the brand's action, responding to consumers and reporting (to Verified Reviews' moderators) reviews considered to be problematic;  

 

On the other hand, by the action of Verified Reviews' moderators following any notification of a review made by the brand or the system during automatic moderation

Thus, after manual examination of the reviews, the Verified Reviews' moderators decide whether or not to publish the reviews in moderation.

 

This automatic and human moderation system makes it possible to avoid the publication of reviews that do not comply with French law and the ISO 20488 standard as well as the General Conditions for Verified Reviews and this Transparency Charter. Standard moderation is carried out by default "a priori," that is to say, before the publication of the reviews. However, the manual part remains available for 3 months from the brand's back office and therefore can be done "a posteriori" if necessary, as mentioned in part 2.5 of this charter. The review is then processed after its publication.

2.4. Customer Review Moderation Period 

Verified Reviews undertakes to comply with the same Moderation period for all Reviews, whether these are positive or negative. This will automatically be set at fourteen (14) days from the submission of the Review.It is specified that other exceptional moderation periods exist and can range from fourteen (14) to twenty-eight (28) days. These periods are possible at the express request of the Verified Reviews' brand and by means of supporting documents. For example, an exceptional moderation period may be granted in the event of a relocation of the brand's company.

2.5. Rejection of the Customer review rejection and reason for the rejection 

Verified Reviews undertakes to systematically inform the consumer of the rejection of a review as well as the reason for the rejection.

Verified Reviews also undertakes to give consumers the opportunity to submit a new review following the deletion of their first review during the moderation process; within the limit of a maximum of three (3) reviews.

Verified Reviews is under no obligation to state the reasons for rejecting a review that has been identified as intending to artificially construct or bias the evaluation of the product or service.

 

Reasons for rejecting consumer Brand reviews:

 

• The review submitted is considered inappropriate, abusive, defamatory, discriminatory, accusatory, racist, or involves a call for legal action;  

The review cannot be considered to be true because Verified Reviews has conflicting reports;

The rating does not correspond to the comment;

The review relates only to the characteristics of the product or service purchased, and not on the overall experience with the rated company;

The description of the consumption experience is not provided, or is considered unintelligible;

The review is identified as aiming to bias the average of the rated company or contains concrete elements of conflicts of interest;  

The review is unrelated to the subject rated;

The review contains personal information or any other information that could identify its writer, contact them or lead to identity theft;

The review mentions the name of a competitor and/or encourages a purchase from the competition;

The writer specifies in his review that he is not yet able to assess the rated company, or that he has not used its services;  

• The review contains promotional material, is considered spam, and/or mentions websites;

• The rated company intervened in the handling of the dispute, and the writer of the review wishes to update it;

The review writer has contacted Verified Reviews or the rated company to modify or delete their review;  

• Verified Reviews believes that its civil or criminal liability may be incurred;

• Verified Reviews has identified this review as fraudulent.

 

Reasons for rejecting Consumer Product Reviews:

 

The review submitted is considered inappropriate, abusive, defamatory, discriminatory, accusatory, racist, or involves a call for legal action;  

• The review cannot be considered to be true because Verified Reviews has conflicting reports;

• The rating does not correspond to the comment;

The review relates only to the shopping experience (customer service, delivery, website) and not to the characteristics of the product or service purchased;  

• The description of the characteristics of the product or service purchased are not provided, or are considered unintelligible;

• The review is identified as aiming to bias the average of the product or service rated, or contains concrete elements of conflicts of interest; 

• The review is unrelated to the product rated;

• The review contains personal information or any other information likely to identify its writer, or be able to contact him, leading to identity theft; 

• The review mentions the name of a competitor and/or encourages a purchase from a competitor; 

• The writer specifies in his review that he is not yet, or will not be, able to evaluate this product or service; 

• The review contains promotional material, is considered spam, and/or mentions websites;

• The rated company intervened in the handling of the dispute, and the writer of the review wishes to update it;  

• The review writer has contacted Verified Reviews or the rated company to modify or delete their review; 

Verified Reviews believes that its civil or criminal liability may be incurred;

• Verified Reviews has identified this review as fraudulent.

 

The brand can submit a review in its back office for three (3) months. Beyond this period, he can only report it for the following four (4) reasons for refusal: the review contains personal information or any other information likely to identify its writer, the review submitted is considered as offensive, the rated company has intervened in the handling of the dispute or the writer of the review has contacted the rated company in order to modify or delete their review.

2.6. Editing, modifying and deleting a review

Verified Reviews agrees not to modify or delete the content of a customer review. Verified Reviews therefore cannot:

 

Correct spelling errors in a review;
Hide part of the text in the review;
• Modify the rating.

 

In rare cases, the names and telephone numbers provided in the reviews may be replaced by stars in order to respect the confidentiality of personal data. 

 

In addition, the consumer who has submitted a review can modify it for a period of three (3) months after writing his review. Beyond this period of three (3) months, he may only request the withdrawal of his review.

To request the modification or deletion of their review, the consumer may contact the moderation department of Verified Reviews, or make the request directly from their review published on the Verified Reviews' review certificate.

Following a request for modification of a review by its author, the Verified Reviews' moderation service will refuse the existing review with the corresponding reason for refusal, and will send the consumer a new form allowing him to submit a new review. The modification of a review is therefore carried out by means of a refusal of a review followed by a re-rating.

3. Process for publishing Customer Reviews 

3.1. Review Delivery 

Verified Reviews displays all reviews whether positive or negative as long as they have not been rejected during the moderation process. Verified Reviews therefore does not select the reviews it publishes.

Verified Reviews displays reviews chronologically from newest to oldest based on the date the review was submitted.

Verified Reviews reproduces the reviews in their entirety.

By default, no consideration is provided in exchange for submitting customer reviews, except for reviews clearly marked as such.

 

For each review, Verified Reviews displays at least the following information:

 

The date and time of the review submission; 
The date of the consumer experience;  
• The first name and the first letter of the reviewer's name. 

 

Verified Reviews may also display the following information: 

 

The product purchased;
The place of purchase or place of intervention.

 

Verified Reviews may display below each review the right of reply for the representative of the product or service being reviewed.  

Verified Reviews does not aggregate or weight ratings. Verified Reviews therefore transparently displays the average rating for each of the rated brands. The rating is obtained using the following calculation: average rating = (sum of the ratings of the published reviews / total number of reviews published). Verified Reviews provides internet users with the customer reviews collected since the beginning of the collaboration and within the limit of five (5) years. On the other hand, the average rating is calculated over the last twelve (12) months in order to be more representative of the current consumer satisfaction. These elements are displayed on the certificate. Reviews are kept for a period of five (5) years in the Verified Reviews' database.

 

The rating is calculated as follows:

 

Calculation of the average, to five (5) digits after the decimal point, of all the ratings of published reviews;
To have a rating out of 5: this average, to five (5) digits after the decimal point, is rounded off to one digit after the decimal point;  
To have a rating out of 10: this average, to five (5) digits after the decimal point, is multiplied by two (2), then rounded to one (1) digit after the decimal point. 

3.2. Reporting a Review with illegal or inappropriate content   

Verified Reviews allows reviews with illegal or inappropriate content to be reported by any internet user. This report can be submitted to: moderation@verified-reviews.com or even from the rated brand's certification page.

3.3. Brand's right of reply 

Verified Reviews gives the representative of the product or service evaluated the opportunity to respond at any time to a review received through their customer back office. He can then: 

Thank the consumer for their contribution;
Provide answers to questions in the comments;
Give their version of the facts (with the possibility of attaching documents);
Indicate any changes made to the product or service since the review was written.

 

Responses are displayed below the relevant reviews. The consumer will receive an email notifying him of any message relating to his review sent by the representative of the product or service evaluated. The consumer will be able to answer this without being able to modify his rating. To modify their opinion, the consumer should request a re-rating, as explained in section 2.6 of this Charter.

These different exchanges will be visible to internet users, unless the brand has hidden the exchanges of the conversation from its back office. The brand will, for its part, be informed of any messages left by consumers about its products and/or services. This process offers the brand the possibility of requesting an explanation when a rating and/or a comment seem unjustified and thus, a right of reply. Under no circumstances should Verified Reviews interfere in the existing relationship between the brand and the consumer. It will be up to the brands to manage any difficulty that arises with a consumer following the collection of a review by Verified Reviews.

3.4A reviewer's loss of the right to submit a review for a review that is recognized as illegal or inappropriate after Moderation 

In the event of a reviewer being identified as having presented one or several reviews with illicit or inappropriate content after Moderation, Verified Reviews will prevent reviews being submitted by this consumer and will delete all reviews that are linked to them.

3.5. Respect for consumer quality 

By accepting the Verified Reviews' General Conditions of Use and this Charter, internet users who submit a review have been informed that they must comply with certain cumulative conditions in order to be able to issue a review, namely: 

 

Be a natural person;
Not be in a situation of conflict of interest;
Have had personal experience of consuming the product or service to which their review relates.

 

For the proper performance of the contract, the brand must ensure that the aforementioned conditions are met.

It should be noted that Verified Reviews may contact the consumer by email for the purpose of verifying compliance with the conditions mentioned.

 

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