Reviews on Material Trader help traders decide who to buy from and sell to, so they only work if they are genuine. This page explains how our reviews work, what is not allowed, and what we do about reviews that break the rules.
Only real orders can be reviewed
You can only leave a review after a completed order, and only about the other party to that order - buyers review sellers, and sellers review buyers. There is one review per order per person. It is not possible to review someone you have not traded with, and this is enforced by our systems, not just by policy.
What is not allowed
We do not allow anyone to submit, commission or publish:
- Fake reviews - reviews written by someone who did not have the genuine experience they describe, including reviews of staged or circular "orders" created to generate ratings.
- Concealed incentivised reviews - reviews given in exchange for payment, discounts, free items or any other benefit, where that incentive is not made clear. We do not operate any incentivised-review programmes: nobody should ever offer you anything in return for a review on Material Trader, and sellers must not offer buyers anything for one.
- Review manipulation - pressuring someone to change or remove an honest review, offering refunds conditional on a positive review, or retaliating against a fair review.
- Illegal or abusive content in a review - threats, harassment, discrimination or other unlawful material.
How we keep ratings honest
- Reviews are locked to real, completed orders (see above).
- The ratings shown on profiles are calculated directly from those reviews - we never add, weight, remove or reorder reviews to flatter a seller.
- Our Trust & Safety monitoring looks at unusual trading and review patterns, and every report is reviewed by a person.
Reporting a review
Every review has a Report this review link. If you believe a review is fake, incentivised, abusive or otherwise breaks these rules, report it there or email hello@materialtrader.co. Reports are confidential.
What happens when a review breaks the rules
We investigate reports and our own monitoring signals. Where a review breaks these rules we may remove it, correct affected ratings, warn or suspend the accounts involved (see our Terms & Conditions for how account restrictions work), and in serious cases report the matter to the authorities. Someone whose review or account is actioned can appeal through the process described in our Terms.
This policy reflects our duties as a review publisher under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. It is reviewed when our review features change.