Review history

Definition

The ratings built up on a listing, held at the marketplace's discretion and not by contract.

Why It Matters

The reviews attach to the LISTING and not to the seller, so a business bought and then relisted under a new arrangement starts at zero on the one signal buyers sort by. No law protects that history and none makes it transferable; the account transfer is the marketplace's decision to allow. What the law does reach is how the history was built. The federal consumer review rule, in force since October 2024, makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to pay for reviews conditioned on a particular sentiment, or to publish reviews by the business's own officers, managers or staff without disclosing the connection. It is equally an offense to display a review set as if it were most or all of them while the poor ones are suppressed. A history built either of those ways is a liability arriving with the account. Read the depth and the pace: thousands across years is defensible, a few hundred inside one quarter is a promotion nobody has tested.