The accidental violation
Most gating isn't a scheme — it's a well-meaning "How did we do?" screen where the low-rating branch simply never shows the marketplace link. If any customer's path to the review page depends on their rating, it's gating, and Amazon, Google and the FTC all prohibit it.
Why it feels safe (and isn't)
Gated funnels look great in dashboards — average ratings climb. But enforcement works backwards from your funnel: mystery shoppers, customer reports, and marketplace crawls of claim pages. The 2026 wave suspended established accounts for funnels that had run for years.
The compliant flow performs anyway
In ReviewBuddie funnels, every customer sees the same review step; unhappy customers are additionally offered a support route. Across campaigns, this resolves most complaints before they become reviews — without hiding the review option from anyone. Sellers switching from gated flows typically see average rating dip ~0.1–0.2 and review volume rise 20–30%, which nets out positive for rank within a quarter.
Full guide: What is review gating?