Last updated: 1 October 2026
About reviews on CookingStuff. We are introducing product and seller reviews, and product questions and answers, on CookingStuff. These guidelines set out the rules that will apply to that content as each feature becomes available, so that buyers and sellers know what to expect from the start.
Reviews help shoppers make better decisions and help good sellers stand out. For reviews to be useful, they must be genuine. These guidelines apply to everyone who posts on CookingStuff – buyers and sellers – and to all reviews, ratings, questions, answers, photos and messages.
Our commitment
- We want reviews on CookingStuff to reflect real experiences with real purchases.
- We don't remove or hide reviews just because they are negative.
- We only remove reviews that break these guidelines or the law, and we apply the same rules to positive and negative reviews.
- We follow the ACCC's guidance on online reviews, which makes clear that fake reviews, and hiding or selectively removing genuine reviews, can mislead consumers and break the Australian Consumer Law.
Who can leave a review
Product and seller reviews can only be left by buyers who purchased the item through CookingStuff. This helps make sure reviews come from real customers.
What makes a helpful review
- Describe your own experience with the product and the seller.
- Be specific – quality, fit, size, how it compares to the photos and description, delivery and packaging.
- Include your own photos if they help.
- Be honest and fair, even if you're unhappy. Criticism is welcome when it's genuine.
Not allowed – for everyone
- Fake reviews – reviews that don't reflect a genuine experience, including reviews of products you haven't bought or used.
- Reviews with a conflict of interest – reviews by a seller, its staff, family, friends, business partners or competitors.
- Offensive content – abuse, threats, harassment, hate speech, discrimination, obscene or sexually explicit content.
- Personal information – names, phone numbers, email or home addresses of other people, or order details of others.
- Irrelevant content – spam, advertising, links to other websites, or content not related to the product or seller.
- Unlawful content – defamatory statements, content that infringes someone's intellectual property, or content that encourages illegal activity.
- Using reviews to pressure – threatening a negative review to get a refund, discount or free item. If you have a problem, use our Buyer Protection process instead.
Not allowed – for sellers
- Writing or buying reviews – posting reviews of your own products or a competitor's products, or paying anyone (including review services) to post reviews.
- Incentivised reviews – offering refunds, discounts, free products, gifts, cashback or any other benefit in exchange for a review, including a positive review or a change to a review.
- Review gating – only asking happy customers to leave reviews, or steering unhappy customers away from reviewing.
- Pressuring buyers – asking buyers to remove or change a negative review, or making a refund or resolution conditional on it.
- Review manipulation – merging reviews from unrelated products, or re-using reviews from other platforms.
Sellers may send one neutral request for feedback through CookingStuff after an order is delivered, as long as it's sent to all buyers and doesn't offer any incentive or suggest what the review should say.
Seller responses
Sellers may publicly reply to reviews. Replies must be polite, factual and must not include buyers' personal information. A helpful reply explains what the seller has done or will do to fix the problem.
Questions, answers and messages
The same standards apply to product questions and answers and to messages between buyers and sellers. Messages must not be used to arrange payment or sales outside CookingStuff, to send spam, or to harass anyone.
Reporting a review
If you think a review or other content breaks these guidelines, use the report option next to it (where available) or email [email protected] with a link and the reason. We'll review it and remove it if it breaks our guidelines. Reporting a review doesn't guarantee it will be removed.
What happens if these guidelines are broken
We may remove content, remove ratings from a listing, restrict the ability to post reviews, and suspend or close accounts. Sellers who manipulate reviews may have their listings removed and their accounts suspended under the Marketplace Seller Agreement. Where appropriate, we may report serious or repeated misconduct to the ACCC.
See also our Terms of Service.