Luxury Mattress Manufacturer, The Saatva Company, Should Exercise Caution Making Claims Based on Third-Party Ratings and Rankings

Further, while Saavta maintained it has an affiliate relationship with the websites, it also affirmed that the affiliate relationship does not influence or give it control over the sites’ content. NAD found that there was insufficient evidence in the record to establish that Saavta has a material connection to the challenged websites or that the statements made on the websites at issue constitute advertising by Saatva. Accordingly, pursuant to its Policies and Procedures which limit NAD’s jurisdiction to “national advertising,” NAD administratively closed the matter with respect to this issue. 

With regard to the claim “America’s best-reviewed luxury sleep brand” on Saatva’s website, NAD noted that consumers could reasonably expect the claim to be based on reliable and representative reviews across the entire luxury mattress product category. Accordingly, if Saavta’s claim is based on third-party reviews that assess only a segment of the luxury mattress market, then the broad and unqualified “best-reviewed luxury sleep brand” claim is potentially misleading to consumers who reasonably expect the claim to reflect a comprehensive review of luxury mattresses across the entire product category. 

NAD further noted that if the third-party ratings or rankings are based on an assessment of metrics that are irrelevant to a reasonable consumer’s purchasing decision, then the “best-reviewed” claim is likely to mislead consumers. Additionally, if third-party review sites purport to be independent and impartial, but have undisclosed connections to the advertiser that are material to consumers (i.e., is likely to affect consumers’ choices or conduct regarding an advertised product), then advertising claims based on the review sites (as well as the review sites themselves) can also mislead consumers. 

Consequently, NAD stated that the advertiser should exercise caution when making claims based on third-party ratings, rankings, and reviews of products. To the extent that the “America’s best-reviewed luxury sleep brand” claim is based on ratings from review sites that are not representative of reviews across the entire luxury mattress product category, uses metrics that are irrelevant to a reasonable consumer’s purchasing decision, or has undisclosed material connections to products reviewed on the sites, NAD recommended that it be discontinued. 

In its advertiser’s statement, Saatva agreed to comply with NAD’s recommendations and thanked NAD for its work on this matter.