What review gating is
Review gating is asking a customer how their experience went before showing them where to leave a public review. Happy customers get the link. Unhappy customers get a private form, an apology, or nothing. The public rating that results is not a picture of all customers, only of the ones who were let through.
It is usually sold as a feature. A survey step, a thumbs up and thumbs down screen, a text message that asks for a star rating first. Any step that decides who sees the review link based on how they feel is the same practice.
Where Google stands
Google names selective solicitation in the prohibited and restricted content section of its policy for user generated content on Maps. Its wording:
“Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”
The same section says that merchants should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises. A card on the counter is an invitation, and the customer decides whether to tap it. Never make a tap a condition of anything, and never stand over the phone.
The policy names the practice as prohibited. What Google does about a violation is Google’s decision, and that page does not spell it out, so we make no claim about how often or how it is enforced.
Where the FTC stands
The Federal Trade Commission’s rule on the use of consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR part 465, has a section on review suppression. Paragraph (b) of section 465.7 describes a business that presents the reviews on its own website or platform as most or all of what came in while negative ones are being held back:
“For a business to materially misrepresent, expressly or by implication, that the consumer reviews of one or more of the products or services it sells displayed in a portion of its website or platform dedicated in whole or in part to receiving and displaying consumer reviews represent most or all the reviews submitted to the website or platform when reviews are being suppressed (i.e., not displayable) based upon their ratings or their negative sentiment.”
The sentence that follows draws the line: “For purposes of paragraph (b), a review is not considered suppressed based upon rating or negative sentiment if the suppression occurs based on criteria applied equally to all reviews without regard to sentiment, such as when the review contains prohibited content, the seller reasonably believes it is fake, or it is wholly unrelated to offered products or services.”
That paragraph is about reviews a business displays on its own website or platform. It does not name gating of solicitation, the practice of asking happy customers first, and we do not claim that it does. Google’s policy is the one that names the practice.
What TapNest does instead
Every TapNest card and stand opens your public Google review page. There is no survey step, no rating screen, and no private form in between. We do not build gating, and we will not add it on request.
That means a customer who had a bad visit can tap the same card and say so. We think that is the right trade. A rating built from everyone who chose to speak is the one Google’s policy asks for, and it is the one the next customer can trust.
This note describes the policy and the rule as published on the dates shown. It is information, not legal advice. If you want cards that work this way, the pricing page lists what we sell.