no promos We don’t allow companies to use our findings to promote themselves, their products, or their services.

Ratings abuse: Thanks for Alert

“As a longtime Consumer Reports subscriber, I guard the ‘No Commercial Use’ policy as zealously as you and support you in whatever action you take to correct this abuse,” wrote Gary Vensel, a rehabilitation program manager from Malone, N.Y. So, it seems, do many of you. Time Warner Cable recently used Consumer Reports’ Ratings to boost its Internet service’s claims of superiority. Yes, Time Warner stopped once our in-house counsel got together with its lawyers. But the incident was bad on two levels: first, because our information was used incorrectly, and second, because it was used at all.

You knew that, and you know how important it is to stop this kind of abuse. You wrote us from New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. You were vigilant in Prairie Village, Kan., Minnetonka, Minn., and dozens of other towns around the country. You clipped the ad from newspapers, you offered to send us a DVD or a tape of the TV commercial, and you painstakingly detailed when and on which channels the Time Warner ad ran. “You’re getting to know an awful lot about my viewing habits,” wrote Frank Bouchard, “a lifetime subscriber and proud of it.”

Many of you asked about our No Commercial Use policy. Consumer Reports does not allow our Ratings or reports to be used by others to promote a product or service; that would compromise our reputation for independence. Advertisements can easily mislead consumers into thinking that we granted permission for such use and that the ads accurately reflect our findings.

All of us at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, are proud of our independence from commercial interests. We don’t allow our trademark or Ratings to be used without our expressed written permission. We don’t accept payment for our Ratings or reviews, we don’t take commercial advertising, and we don’t endorse one product or service over another. Nor do we accept free samples of the products we test or any other freebies.

CU does have affiliate relationships with a number of companies that are media-related as a way to expand the reach of our information to more consumers. So, for instance, you can find a link to Consumer Reports information on the Yahoo Tech Web site, as well as on MSN and America Online.  We accept no payment for this information.

We often learn of infringements of our policy through the eyes and ears of our readers, who feel as strongly as we do about the misuse of our name and Ratings. “I find this kind of intentional violation of your No Commercial Use policy to be offensive,” wrote Jim Connolly, a lawyer from Austin, Texas, and a Consumer Reports reader. So do we.

Please continue to let us know if you see any company using our name or our Ratings to push their products. You can e-mail us at nocomm@legal.consumer.org or write to Consumers Union, Department WJW, 101 Truman Ave., Yonkers, NY 10703-1057.

Thanks for the trust you place in our testing and reporting. We appreciate your diligence in protecting our reputation. We will continue to do whatever it takes to defend it.

Jim Guest President