House Rules

JudgeService adhere to the UK's Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs) and advertising rules. Recommendations from the CMA

JudgeService rules for publishing online reviews

Consumers rely on online reviews to make purchasing decisions and expect reviews to be independent and genuine to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.

At JudgeService we have built our reputation as an independent, impartial, genuine review provider through operating a rigid testimonial publishing framework to ensure that consumer reviews are totally unbiased and provide an accurate picture of the consumer experience.

All reviews reflect the consumer’s actual experience and opinion. We don’t use testimonials that make claims about products or services that we can’t back up with clear evidence.

We receive consumer contact data from our clients as an automatic download direct to our system from their Customer Management System. We then email, text, or call to survey every consumer within a pre-set designated time frame.

We publish every review we receive, even negative ones, provided they are genuine and lawful. Our clients provide designated internal contacts who are given sight of every review directly from JudgeService. We will identify all reviews that are gathered from verified consumers as JudgeService reviews and will publish reviews received without solicitation as non-verified reviews.

We do not publish reviews if they include swearing, abusive language, or defamatory remarks of a personal nature.

We also do not publish testimonials where the consumer has included personal details such as a mobile phone number, or where they have specifically requested that we do not use their testimonial online.

We ensure there is no unreasonable delay before reviews are published, so consumers get the current picture, and the business has the opportunity to respond online through our ‘right to reply’ facility which shows their response to the online review. This provides each location the opportunity to resolve the complaint in an open forum and for potential consumers to see how they handle issues generally.

We disclose commercial relationships with businesses that appear on our site.

We have appropriate procedures in place to detect and remove fake reviews, and act promptly in response to reports of suspected fake reviews.

We check every testimonial prior to publishing as there is no safer check than a pair of eyes reading content.

We do not offer inducements – money or gifts – to consumers to write positive reviews.

We do not pretend to be a consumer and write reviews about our clients – or pay others to do so.

Where we receive unsolicited reviews, we add the content to our JudgeService website and, where possible, advise the relevant location of the content. (An unsolicited review is when information is received without being requested, spontaneously, and honestly.)

The number of reviews received and the overall percentage of who would recommend provides the basis of the online performance score JudgeService promotes. The average score is calculated and updated constantly, and this is shown as a score on the JudgeService website and as a widget on client and third-party websites, should they choose to display it.