TikTok Shop today published a revised Review Policy for US sellers, laying out specific prohibitions on incentivized and manipulated reviews, defining a 60-calendar-day window for measuring negative review rates, and making clear that violations can result in listing removal or the loss of selling privileges entirely.

The policy, dated June 26, 2026 and published in the US Academy Policy Center under the Manage Your Customers section, applies to every seller operating a storefront on the platform. It covers the full range of review-related conduct - from the initial solicitation of feedback to how sellers respond to critical ratings and whether they attempt to redirect unhappy buyers away from leaving a public review at all.

The incentive prohibition and its one exception

The core rule is categorical. According to TikTok Shop, sellers must not attempt to persuade customers or third parties to leave reviews on their own product or another seller's product through buyer messages, short videos, LIVEs, or any other communication method by offering money, gift cards, free products, discounts, refunds, rebates, reimbursements, or any other form of incentive.

That list is deliberately exhaustive. The policy names eight specific forms of consideration - money, gift cards, free products, discounts, refunds, rebates, reimbursements, and any other form of incentive - and it extends the prohibition to reviews of competitor products as well as the seller's own listings. A seller paying for negative reviews against a rival falls under the same rule as one paying for positive reviews of their own goods.

One carve-out exists. According to TikTok Shop, the restriction does not apply when using the official TikTok Shop Incentivized Review feature. That means sellers who want to gather reviews through financial incentives must route those requests through TikTok's own mechanism rather than conducting outreach directly. The incentivized feature functions as the controlled channel for what the policy otherwise prohibits in the open.

Manipulation and selective solicitation

Beyond direct incentives, the policy targets a broader category of manipulation. According to TikTok Shop, sellers must not attempt to manipulate reviews, including discouraging customers from leaving reviews, requesting changes or removals of existing reviews, or selectively asking for reviews from satisfied customers only.

That last point - selective solicitation - carries practical weight. A seller who contacts buyers after a successful delivery but stays silent after a complaint is, under this policy, engaging in prohibited conduct. The logic is that cherry-picking who receives a review request skews the dataset that potential buyers rely on when assessing product quality and seller reliability.

The prohibition on requesting review removals or changes is equally firm. A seller who responds to a negative review by privately asking the buyer to update or delete it is in violation regardless of how the request is framed.

Third-party review services and listing violations

A separate section targets review management services - third parties that offer to generate positive or negative reviews in exchange for payment. According to TikTok Shop, sellers must not use such services for their own products or for competitor products. The policy also prohibits sellers from listing or selling review services on the platform. Selling the service of generating reviews, rather than selling a physical product, is itself a listing violation under this framework.

This provision operates at two levels simultaneously: it governs what sellers buy from external providers, and it governs what sellers are permitted to offer for sale on TikTok Shop itself.

Abusive conduct and off-platform redirection

Two further prohibitions address conduct that could affect buyers directly. According to TikTok Shop, sellers must not make repeated requests to customers to leave a review on a single order. The policy does not define a maximum number of requests before conduct crosses into the prohibited category, but the language - "repeated requests" - makes any sustained follow-up on a single order the relevant threshold.

Sellers are also prohibited from responding to reviews in a manner that violates community guidelines or reveals personal information about customers. Disclosing identifying details about a buyer in a public review response - whether as a retaliatory act or otherwise - constitutes an enforcement trigger.

The policy creates an additional structural requirement around negative reviews. According to TikTok Shop, sellers are prohibited from diverting reviews to different feedback channels. This covers redirecting buyers to customer service instead of allowing them to post a review. A seller who receives a complaint and responds by offering to resolve the issue privately - with the implicit or explicit intent of preventing a public rating - is engaging in conduct the policy classifies as redirecting reviews off platform.

The 60-day NRR calculation

The most technically specific section of the policy defines the Negative Review Rate (NRR). According to TikTok Shop, a rating of 1 or 2 stars out of 5 constitutes a negative review. The NRR is calculated as the total number of product reviews with 1-2 star ratings divided by the total number of orders delivered in the last 60 calendar days.

That 60-day window is the operative measurement period. A seller's NRR can shift substantially within a single month based on a cluster of complaints - or, equally, a cluster of recoveries. The policy states that sellers must maintain a low NRR and will be notified if their NRR subjects them to potential enforcement.

The policy categorises negative reviews across three distinct types: product-related, logistics-related, and service-related. Each category requires separate attention from sellers who receive enforcement notifications. A product quality problem is a different root cause from a delivery failure, and TikTok Shop's documentation points sellers to additional guidance covering all three.

The NRR metric intersects with the broader Shop Performance Score (SPS) architecture that TikTok Shop formalized in its US Academy on June 22, 2026. According to that framework, the Negative Review Rate is one of six metrics feeding into the SPS, and a seller whose product satisfaction score falls below 1 triggers an automatic adjustment that drags the entire SPS to its lowest component value - making product quality the structural floor of the scoring system. The NRR component has an additional graduated mechanism: when a negative review rate is worse than the industry average and the number of negative reviews exceeds three, the SPS is adjusted downward with escalating intensity.

Enforcement and appeals

If violations are identified, TikTok Shop may take enforcement action at its sole discretion. According to TikTok Shop, enforcement may include removing product listings, assigning violation points, or removing selling privileges.

That final option - removing selling privileges - is the most severe outcome listed. It would prevent a seller from continuing to transact on the platform without going through an appeal process. The policy directs sellers to the Appeals section of the Seller Enforcement Policy for guidance on how to challenge an enforcement action.

Sellers who wish to report a review as incorrect, invalid, or abusive can do so through the Product Ratings page in Seller Center. According to TikTok Shop, the platform will investigate reports and take appropriate actions, with a separate policy guide covering the types of reviews that can be reported and the reporting process.

Context within TikTok Shop's broader compliance architecture

The Review Policy arrives during a period of intensive policy activity across TikTok Shop's seller documentation. Since May 2026, the platform has published or revised a series of structural documents governing how sellers operate, what content they can produce, and how their accounts are measured.

TikTok Shop's content and listing policy updates in May and June 2026 introduced posting limits, banned AI-generated voices from LIVEs, added made-in-USA origin claim requirements, and announced the replacement of the existing Violation Points system with an Account Health Rating from July 2026. The old system operated on a 90-day reset cycle, with permanent deactivation triggered at 48 points. The incoming Account Health Rating reflects ongoing account behaviour rather than a point balance, shifting what sellers must monitor on a continuous basis.

The Creator Enforcement Policy published on June 2, 2026 added a 6-in-90-days rule for creators, under which committing the same violation six times within a rolling 90-day window triggers immediate removal of e-commerce permissions and commission freezes, regardless of Creator Health Rating score.

The Review Policy integrates with this architecture at two points. First, violation points under the review rules feed into the Account Health Rating - meaning a review-related enforcement action can affect a seller's access to campaign tools, affiliate marketing, and promotional features well beyond the product listing itself. Second, the NRR metric feeds directly into the Shop Performance Score, where a deteriorating rate beyond the industry average triggers a downward SPS adjustment with escalating intensity.

TikTok Shop's gambling policy published on June 25, 2026 followed the same enforcement model: Account Health Rating deductions, listing removal, and privilege revocation as the graduated response. The Review Policy extends that enforcement model to cover the full lifecycle of a customer rating.

For marketers and advertisers active on TikTok Shop, the review rules carry a secondary implication. Paid campaigns driving traffic to product listings are only as durable as the underlying seller account's standing. A seller whose selling privileges are removed - or whose SPS falls due to a deteriorating NRR - can disrupt active campaigns and affiliate partnerships simultaneously.

Timeline

  • September 2023 - TikTok Shop launches in the United States
  • May 11, 2026 - TikTok Shop introduces daily posting limits for shoppable videos
  • May 22, 2026 - TikTok Shop publishes revised Content Policy, previews Account Health Rating replacing Violation Points from July 2026
  • May 23, 2026 - TikTok Shop bans AI-generated voices, pre-recorded audio, and still-frame visuals from LIVEs and shoppable videos
  • June 2, 2026 - TikTok Shop publishes updated Creator Enforcement Policy with 6-in-90-days violation rule and commission freeze conditions
  • June 22, 2026 - TikTok Shop publishes comprehensive Shop Performance Score guide, formalizing NRR as a metric and its graduated effect on seller scoring
  • June 25, 2026 - TikTok Shop publishes gambling policy prohibiting eight break formats and banning lucky spins
  • June 26, 2026 - TikTok Shop publishes revised Review Policy defining NRR as a 60-day metric, prohibiting incentivized and manipulated reviews, and listing selling privilege removal as an enforcement outcome
  • July 2026 - Account Health Rating system scheduled to fully replace the Violation Points system

Summary

Who: TikTok Shop, addressing all sellers operating storefronts on the US platform through its US Academy Policy Center.

What: A revised Review Policy published June 26, 2026 prohibits incentivized reviews (outside the official Incentivized Review feature), manipulation of reviews, use of third-party review services, repeated review requests, diversion of unhappy buyers away from public reviews, and disclosure of customer personal information in review responses. The policy defines a Negative Review Rate as 1-2 star ratings divided by total orders delivered in the preceding 60 calendar days and sets this as an ongoing metric sellers must maintain at a low level. Enforcement options include listing removal, violation points, and removal of selling privileges.

When: The policy is dated June 26, 2026.

Where: The policy applies to TikTok Shop's US marketplace and is accessible through the US Academy Policy Center under Manage Your Customers in Seller Center.

Why: TikTok Shop is building a compliance architecture that ties seller conduct across content, products, fulfillment, and customer reviews into a single Account Health Rating system, scheduled to replace Violation Points from July 2026. Review manipulation undermines the buyer trust that sustains the platform's social commerce model. By defining the NRR as a 60-day metric and connecting it to the Shop Performance Score, TikTok Shop makes review quality a continuous operational variable rather than an episodic enforcement concern.