Trustpilot brings further transparency to online reviews with new feature

7 February 2019 – New York – London – Copenhagen – Trustpilot, the leading global customer review platform free and open to everyone, today announced the release of its new Transparent Flagging feature. Bringing further transparency to the reviews industry, the feature provides consumers with a window into how often companies flag reviews and what happens to them once they’ve been investigated. The new feature is the first of its kind and is part of Trustpilot’s larger initiative to bring more openness and transparency to its platform and the review industry as a whole.

“We believe being open and transparent is the only way to do business. I’m thrilled to see our new feature pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to transparency in the reviews space. Opening up the flagging process adds more credibility to all Trustpilot reviews and is yet another step towards our mission to create ever-improving experiences for everyone,” said Peter Mühlmann, founder and CEO at Trustpilot.

Trustpilot’s commitment to openness also means a commitment to leading the fight against fake reviews and any attempts to misrepresent one's online reputation. While companies flag less than one percent of all reviews written on Trustpilot, the feature is also a real opportunity for businesses to show their customers they have nothing to hide.

“Providing this level of transparency helps businesses grow brand trust and where needed, incentivises good behaviour. We continue our commitment to combat any attempts to game the system and our fight for a reviews industry where businesses should not be allowed to censor what people can see and share,” said Stine Mangor Tornmark, Senior Vice President Legal & Compliance at Trustpilot.

Anyone with a buying or service experience can post a review on Trustpilot and companies cannot pre-screen or moderate what consumers actually read. Both companies and consumers can also flag a review if they think it breaches Trustpilot’s guidelines and it will then be investigated. When doing so, the company has to explain why the reported review doesn’t belong on the platform and their flagging reason will be displayed publicly on their company profile page.

The flagging data now being displayed on every company profile page has been collected since January 1st of this year and gives consumers a detailed view of how companies handle reviews on Trustpilot including:

how many reviews the company has flagged;
how many of those reviews went back online and how many were removed;
and whether the flagged reviews were in breach of Trustpilot’s guidelines or not.

Consumers will also be able to see how a business is flagging reviews distributed against their star rating.

The new feature comes off the back of Trustpilot introducing public flagging reasons, enabling all users to see the reason for a review being flagged by a company, as well as the implementation of a three-tier warning system that aims to stop companies trying to misuse the flagging function.

About Trustpilot
Trustpilot is a leading independent review platform - free and open to all. With more than 55 million reviews of over 260,000 domains, Trustpilot gives people a place to share and discover reviews of businesses, and we give every company the tools to turn consumer feedback into business results. Our mission is to bring people and businesses closer together to create ever-improving experiences for everyone. Trustpilot reviews are seen more than 2,5 billion times each month by consumers worldwide. With offices in Copenhagen, London, New York, Denver, Berlin, Melbourne and Vilnius, Trustpilot's 700 employees represent more than 40 different nationalities. For more information, visit https://www.trustpilot.com/