What is the policy?

The FTC enforces laws that prohibit deceptive advertising and marketing. To protect consumers, the FTC has determined that soliciting online ratings, reviews and endorsements can be deceptive and has issued guidance for marketers to avoid this. The FTC can fine and sue companies that do not comply. Walmart enforces all federally mandated laws.  

Any third-party seller that posts reviews, especially if it seeks to solicit reviews by running a sampling campaign, must comply with the FTC’s endorsement and testimonial guides, staff guidance on endorsements and staff guidance on online reviews. 

Walmart reserves the right to take immediate steps to ensure that its Marketplace is free of deceptive ratings and reviews. Such steps may include taking down deceptive reviews, and removing, suspending or banning third-party Marketplace sellers from the Walmart Marketplace if it determines that the seller has violated this policy.

Additional guidelines 

As a Marketplace seller, you must not: 

• Offer a gift card in exchange for a review or including any promotional inserts in packages. 

• Ask people who haven’t used or experienced the product or service to provide reviews. 

• Ask your staff to write reviews of your business. 

• Ask for reviews only from customers you think will leave positive ones. 

• Ask family and friends for reviews. 

• Pay customers to post reviews. 

• Suppress negative reviews, even if you think they are unfair or inaccurate. 

Any product sent to a consumer for the purpose of soliciting an authentic product review is considered a sample. Samples can be incentivized or non-incentivized. If you provide product samples through a Walmart-approved third-party product review sampling provider such as Field Agent, the Brand Power Company or Bazaarvoice, you must not: 

• Use Walmart branding. 

• Explicitly or implicitly condition the offer of a free sample for a positive review.