Measures for the Verification of Product Ratings
Since 28.05.2022 (§3(3) Act Against Unfair Competition), companies that publicly display reviews must inform if and how it is ensured that the published reviews originate from consumers who have actually purchased or used the reviewed goods and services. Even before the amendment of the Act Against Unfair Competition, Pixum had already taken measures to ensure that the published product reviews only originate from genuine Pixum customers.
Checking Authenticity of Ratings
Pixum shall only invite those customers to submit a product evaluation who have actually created and purchased one of the Pixum photo products. The evaluation request shall be made by invitation via a standardised email sent by Pixum to the email address that the customer used for the order. There shall be no further invitation to rate the product. In order to verify the authenticity and the legitimacy of the evaluation, the reviews cannot be submitted anonymously. The email address used for the purchase always serves as a verifiable reference for the rating submission.
Every customer shall be asked to submit a product review to Pixum within 7 days after ordering. Within a period of 90 days, the product evaluation invitation shall only be sent once. It does not matter if the customer has placed several orders in said time period.
If customers are requested to submit a shop rating via the external service providers Trusted Shops or Trustpilot, the burden of proof of authenticity shall lie with the respective service provider. As described in § 3 (3) Act Against Unfair Competition (new version), the service provider must also take their own measures to ensure that a check is carried out and that the authenticity of the ratings is guaranteed.
Pixum and its service providers for shop ratings, Trusted Shops and Trustpilot, do not offer any advantages, special conditions, price reductions or other incentives for the submission of a positive rating or the withdrawal of a negative rating.
Star-Based Rating System
Each actual experience in connection with the purchase of Pixum photo products can be rated with up to 5 stars. An overall rating is then calculated from the simple average of the rating scores of all submitted product ratings. Customers can also share their experiences in their own words by adding comments.
The rating system is defined as follows:
5 stars: Very Good
4 stars: Good
3 stars: Satisfactory
2 stars: Sufficient
1 star: Poor
If the customer has submitted a product rating, it shall be published on the Pixum website in the product ratings section of the respective product or product group. Pixum shall only publish the first name of the customer, the star rating including the description in their own words and the date of the review. No personal data, such as surnames, shall be published.
If, despite the above-mentioned measures, there are conspicuous features in a rating which indicate that it is not based on a genuine customer experience, proof of the legitimacy of the rating submitted will be requested and checked accordingly. If the requested evidence does not prove the purchase of a Pixum photo product, the rating will be permanently removed.
