I've been buying lifetime deals from AppSumo for years. I'm an AppSumo Plus member, joined in 2021, and have purchased **165 deals** through the platform.

I recently purchased Tier 3 of Inkfluence AI.

During the campaign, a new, more expensive plan was introduced with additional functionality, including Priority Rendering. I wasn't happy about buying what I thought was the highest/best available tier and then having another tier introduced afterward with a feature I would have wanted.

So I mentioned that experience in my review.

**AppSumo denied the review.**

I've attached the screenshot of AppSumo's response so everyone can read exactly what they told me rather than relying on my interpretation.

Their explanation included:

>"We don't accept reviews that focus primarily on features that weren't included in your purchase."

They also told me that:

>"Adding new higher tiers or features mid-campaign is standard practice and has always been extraordinarily commonplace."

That second statement particularly surprised me as a longtime AppSumo customer.

Maybe other longtime customers have had a different experience, but I don't remember this being the normal way AppSumo campaigns operated. My recollection is that the tiers and terms were generally established for a campaign, and substantially different offers were more commonly something you'd see when a product returned for another campaign.

But here's the bigger issue.

# Why shouldn't customers be allowed to review the deal itself?

AppSumo's published moderation guidelines explicitly say:

>"Review the product, not the structure of the offer."

They say reviews that focus largely on the quality of the **deal** rather than the product can be denied.

I think that's a terrible policy for a marketplace whose entire business revolves around **software deals**.

When I'm considering spending $50, $100, $300, $500 or more on a lifetime deal, I don't just want to know whether the software works.

I want verified purchasers to tell me about the entire purchasing experience.

Were the limits reasonable?

Was the highest tier actually worth buying?

Did the company introduce another tier afterward?

Were important features moved into a more expensive tier?

Did early purchasers feel that what they bought was devalued?

Did the structure of the offer change their opinion of the purchase?

**That's useful consumer information.**

AppSumo apparently considers much of that information inappropriate for its product reviews.

# Here's where I think the legal question gets interesting

I'm **not claiming AppSumo has broken the law**, and I'm not an attorney.

But after this happened, I started looking into the FTC's rules and guidance concerning online reviews.

The FTC's guidance to review platforms specifically says:

>"Treat positive and negative reviews equally."

It also tells platforms not to subject negative reviews to greater scrutiny and recommends publishing genuine reviews rather than excluding negative ones.

Even more interestingly, the FTC directly addresses businesses establishing rules excluding certain categories of reviews.

For example, the FTC says a company can have a policy against reviews mentioning other products **as long as the policy treats positive and negative reviews equally**. It similarly says customer-service-only reviews can be excluded as long as positive and negative reviews receive equal treatment.

That leads to the question I'd really like AppSumo to answer.

Suppose someone posts:

**"I love the new higher tier! I upgraded and the additional features are absolutely worth the money. Everyone on Tier 3 should upgrade!"**

Would AppSumo reject that review because it's discussing the structure of the offer rather than reviewing the product?

If they would, I still disagree strongly with the policy, but at least it's being applied consistently.

**But what happens if positive reviews encouraging people to purchase higher tiers are permitted while negative reviews criticizing the introduction of those tiers are rejected?**

That's a much more interesting question.

The FTC's Consumer Review Rule specifically addresses review suppression. The rule recognizes legitimate content-neutral reasons for withholding reviews, but the criteria need to be applied without regard to sentiment.

The FTC also warns that presenting reviews in ways that give consumers a misleading picture of customer sentiment can potentially raise issues under Section 5 of the FTC Act.

# And this isn't some imaginary area of consumer law

The FTC has actually pursued companies over suppressing negative reviews.

For example, the FTC alleged that shoe retailer Hey Dude automatically published five-star reviews with little scrutiny while rejecting many less favorable reviews. The company ultimately agreed to pay **$1.95 million** to settle FTC charges that included negative-review suppression allegations.

I'm **not saying AppSumo is doing the same thing**.

One rejected review doesn't establish that.

But I think AppSumo's policy raises a legitimate question that could be answered with evidence:

**Does AppSumo enforce its "don't review the structure of the offer" rule equally against positive and negative reviews?**

# Consumer-protection attorneys: I'd actually like your opinion

If there are any attorneys here who practice consumer protection, deceptive trade practices, advertising law, or class-action litigation, I'd genuinely be interested in your interpretation.

I'm not calling this an "easy lawsuit" because I don't know that there is a private cause of action applicable to these facts, and the federal FTC Consumer Review Rule itself is enforced by the FTC rather than providing consumers a general private right to sue under that rule.

There could also be separate questions under applicable state consumer-protection/deceptive-practices laws depending on the facts, AppSumo's representations, its terms, actual damages, and how its moderation system operates.

**So maybe there's nothing actionable here. Maybe there is.**

If an attorney thinks there's something worth investigating, have at it. I'm happy to provide the original review, rejection, screenshots and other documentation I have.

More importantly, I'd like to know whether other customers have experienced the same thing.

# If you're an AppSumo customer, please check your reviews

If you've ever had an AppSumo review rejected because you criticized:

* pricing
* tier structure
* limits
* upgrades
* changes made during a campaign
* features being moved or added to higher tiers

please save the rejection and post a screenshot.

And I'm particularly interested in the **opposite evidence**.

Can anyone find approved AppSumo reviews that positively discuss upgrading tiers, higher-tier features, pricing, deal structure, or recommending that customers purchase a more expensive tier?

Because that's the comparison that matters.

If AppSumo removes positive and negative discussion of deal structure equally, then I think they simply have a bad review policy.

**If positive discussion of tiers and upgrades is allowed while criticism of those same things is suppressed, then I think there's a much more serious question about whether prospective purchasers are being shown a distorted picture of consumer sentiment.**

The FTC itself tells review platforms to treat positive and negative reviews equally.

# And here's the part I find pretty funny

AppSumo's moderation actually backfired.

My original review wasn't primarily an attack on Inkfluence itself.

A significant part of my dissatisfaction concerned the **tier structure and what happened with the offer**.

AppSumo told me I wasn't allowed to focus on that and should instead review the actual product.

**So I did.**

I rewrote the review to focus specifically on my experience with Inkfluence.

I gave it **one taco**.

I explained that I thought the quality was very low, that the generated writing was generic, that I didn't think the UI was visually appealing, and that I would only consider using the generated content for disposable quick lead magnets rather than serious publishing.

**AppSumo approved that version.**

Then I fully refunded the product.

So instead of prospective customers seeing something along the lines of:

**"Longtime AppSumo customer dislikes how this company handled its tiers."**

AppSumo's moderation resulted in them seeing:

**"Verified purchaser with 165 AppSumo purchases thinks the actual product is very, very low quality."**

I genuinely think my first review was kinder.

AppSumo rejected my review because I criticized a new tier added mid-campaign. Is their review moderation potentially suppressing negative consumer feedback?