Amazon review without a purchase: what sellers can do

What “Verified Purchase” means

Amazon marks a review as a “Verified Purchase” if the reviewer bought the product on Amazon. If the badge is missing, the reviewer may have bought it elsewhere, received it as a gift, or never had it at all. As a general rule, Amazon also allows reviews from people who did not buy on Amazon, as long as the reviews are based on their own experience.

Reviews from the Vine program are a special case. They come from testers who received the product free of charge through the program. They are labeled as such and cannot be challenged with the argument “no purchase.”

When a review without a purchase can be challenged

A review is supposed to reflect the reviewer’s own experience with the product. If it is not based on any such experience, it creates a false impression. In the context of review platforms, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice has ruled that the operator must look into a review if the business being reviewed disputes that there was any contact with the reviewer at all. Whether and how this carries over to a specific product review is assessed by our partner law firm on a case-by-case basis.

For sellers, this means: if you check your orders and find no matching purchase, you have a possible argument. It is particularly strong if

• the product is sold exclusively on Amazon,
• the review is not marked as a Verified Purchase and does not come from the Vine program,
• the review mentions details that do not match any order, such as a variant that does not exist.

Check carefully first

The statement “there was no purchase” has to be true. So check all your sales channels before you make it: Amazon orders, your own online store, other marketplaces, brick-and-mortar retail. If you also sell outside Amazon, the reviewer may have bought the product there. In that case, this argument is weak, and other grounds, such as false claims, are more important.

If the review can be matched to an order, that suggests a genuine experience. The review can then still be challenged if it is impermissible for other reasons, but not with the argument “no purchase.”

How it works with AMZDelete

For every review, AMZDelete shows whether it is marked as a Verified Purchase. If you order removal of a review without a Verified Purchase, we ask whether you have checked your orders and whether there is a matching purchase. We also ask once whether you sell outside Amazon as well. This lets the law firm assess how strong this ground is, and it only bases the removal request on it if it holds up.

Frequently asked questions

This guide gives a general overview and does not replace a legal review of your individual case. At AMZDelete, our partner law firm checks whether a review can be challenged.