---
title: Honest selling online
summary: Hidden fees, fake reviews, tricky cancel flows and borrowed images. What consumer law and the regulators say, with the fines that made them famous.
topic: compliance
order: 2
updated: 2026-09-19
---

## What it is

A website that sells something is a shop, and shop rules apply. In the Philippines these come
mainly from **Republic Act 7394**, the Consumer Act, and **Republic Act 11967**, the Internet
Transactions Act of 2023. The Intellectual Property Code (RA 8293) covers the fonts and
images you use.

## Why it is a rule

- **Epic Games, 2022.** The US Federal Trade Commission ordered Epic to pay $245 million in
  refunds to Fortnite players over **dark patterns**: button layouts that led people,
  including children, into purchases they did not mean to make.
- **Amazon Prime, 2023.** The FTC sued Amazon, saying the Prime sign-up nudged people in and
  the cancel flow was built to wear them down. Internally, it said, the cancel flow had a
  codename taken from Homer's *Iliad*.
- **Fake reviews, 2024.** The FTC adopted a rule that bans buying, selling or writing fake
  reviews and testimonials, with fines per violation.

## How to do it

### Show who you are

The registered business name and registration number, a physical address, an email and, if
you invoice, the TIN. The Internet Transactions Act requires online merchants to be
identifiable and reachable.

### The price shown is the price paid

Taxes, setup fees, per-seat charges and the renewal price appear **next to** the headline
price, before the buyer commits. Say whether VAT is included. A free trial that turns into a
charge says when and how much, before the card is taken.

### A refund and cancellation policy, before payment

Who qualifies, the window, how to ask, how long the refund takes, and what happens to the
customer's data when they leave. Cancelling is as easy as signing up.

### No dark patterns

- No "No thanks, I don't like saving money" buttons.
- No pre-selected add-ons.
- No countdown timers or "only 2 left" unless it is true.
- No hiding the cancel or unsubscribe link.

### Reviews and claims you can prove

Every testimonial is real, from a real client, used with permission and not edited to change
its meaning. Every claim ("BIR-accredited", "99.9% uptime", "bank-grade security") has
evidence on file. If the evidence does not exist, the claim goes.

### Unsubscribe that works

Every marketing email has a working unsubscribe link. Bulk senders also send the one-click
headers, which Gmail and Yahoo now require:

```http
List-Unsubscribe: <https://example.com/unsubscribe?t=…>
List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click
```

Password resets and receipts need no unsubscribe, as long as they carry no marketing.

### License everything you ship

Fonts, photos, icons, illustrations and code libraries each need a licence that allows
commercial web use. Google Fonts are open-licensed and may be self-hosted; many desktop font
licences do not cover the web. "Found it on Google Images" is not a licence.

## How we do it here

We name every service we sell and nothing we do not, and our structured data states only
real business details. Our fonts and icons are open-licensed and self-hosted.

## Benefits

- No fines, no takedowns, no chargebacks from buyers who felt tricked.
- Clear prices and easy cancellation build the trust that brings clients back.
- Search engines reward accurate, honest pages and punish invented reviews and data.

## Disadvantages

- Honest prices can look higher than a competitor's drip-priced headline.
- Easy cancellation means some customers leave who might have been talked into staying.
- Tracking a licence for every asset is tedious work.

## Checklist

- Business name, registration, address and contact reachable from every page.
- Full price, including renewals, before commitment.
- Refund and cancellation terms before payment.
- No dark patterns, no fake urgency.
- Reviews real; claims backed by evidence.
- One-click unsubscribe on marketing email.
- A licence on file for every asset.

## Sources

- US Federal Trade Commission, settlement with Epic Games over Fortnite purchases, December 2022.
- [Google — Email sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126)
- [RFC 8058 — One-click unsubscribe](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8058)
- Republic Act 7394, the Consumer Act of the Philippines; Republic Act 11967, the Internet Transactions Act of 2023.