ByLocals Listing, Independence & Verification Policy

ByLocals Listing, Independence & Verification Policy

Draft v1.0 for legal and operational review — publish at bylocals.co.uk/listing-policy

Effective: [LAUNCH-DATE] · Last revised: 10 Aug 2026 · Operated by Aceman Software Solutions Ltd

This policy explains what ByLocals covers, what our labels mean, how evidence is assessed and how anyone can correct, challenge or remove information. It must be read with our Privacy Notice and Review & Vouch Policy.

1. Scope and the free-core promise

ByLocals works towards broad, accurate coverage of eligible consumer-facing independent businesses in the neighbourhoods it has launched. We do not promise that every independent is present or that every fact is current.

The Free Core includes eligibility assessment, an ordinary listing, claiming, ordinary fact confirmation/editing, corrections/removals, up to six moderated genuine business images per location, a standard current-record export and eligibility for organic discovery. Businesses need not buy anything to be assessed, listed, verified or found. Approved images are presentation only: their presence, count, order or engagement cannot affect organic discovery, freshness or trust status.

2. The organisation-and-location record

We do not treat a trading name as a single undifferentiated business. Our records separate:

• the organisation: legal or operating entity, beneficial/control evidence, group relationships and independence decision; and
• each location or service area: trading address/area, local identity, contacts, hours, categories and other facts.

A locally controlled organisation may operate several locations. Each location has its own facts and public lifecycle; representative access is granted at organisation level and scoped to the locations that person may manage. The organisation’s ownership decision is not proof that every location fact is correct. Ownership changes, relocations and transfers create review events rather than silently overwriting history.

3. Eligibility and “independent”

An organisation is normally eligible when meaningful ownership, operating control and economic benefit remain with its founder(s), family, workers, members or locally accountable community owners. Geography and location count are not decisive; the test is who controls the organisation, brand and material operating decisions.

Normally excluded:

• a branch, subsidiary or controlled portfolio company whose material ownership or operating decisions sit with an ineligible chain, institutional group or roll-up;
• a franchise, concession or licensed-format outlet required to trade under another organisation’s consumer brand or operating system;
• a business controlled by a public company, institutional chain operator or private-equity portfolio group; and
• a marketplace profile that is not a distinct trading business.

A founder-, family-, worker-, member- or community-controlled group may remain eligible at more than one location; its shared ownership, control and locations are disclosed. A locally incorporated or single-site operation does not qualify when control sits with an ineligible franchisor or group. Co-operatives, community businesses, charities, market traders, mobile businesses and sole traders are assessed on control and genuine trading activity, not corporate form, geography or raw site count.

Evidence can be incomplete or contradictory. In that case the state is independence under review, not “verified”. Borderline decisions are logged against the rubric, can be challenged and receive a second-person review before final exclusion or withdrawal. [INDEPENDENCE-APPEAL-ROUTE] must be live before publication.

4. Separate status dimensions

ByLocals does not use one badge to collapse different claims. The system records and, where useful, displays these dimensions separately:

Dimension	Example states	What it does and does not mean
Independence assessment	eligible confirmed / eligible provisional / uncertain review / ineligible / appeal open / expired recheck	Whether the organisation fits this policy at a point in time; only eligible confirmed may receive the badge or organic recommendation, and it is not a quality endorsement
Owner identity / claim	unclaimed / pending / confirmed / rejected / revoked	Who is authorised to manage the organisation and scoped locations; not proof of independence or every fact
Location publication	draft / review / published / hedged / temporarily closed / tombstoned / suppressed	Whether and how one location is publicly shown; not a business-wide trust score
Fact provenance	official source / owner confirmed / business publication / community reported / inferred / unknown	Who or what supports that individual value; inferred and unknown information is not presented as verified fact
Fact freshness	current / aging / stale / unknown	Recency only; payment cannot change it

Verified Independent means only that the organisation is eligible_confirmed under the current independence policy. Owner identity, claim status and every fact’s provenance are displayed separately; none is implied by the badge. The badge does not certify quality, safety, competence, financial health, regulatory compliance or every fact on the page. Sector ratings/accreditations are attributed to their actual issuer.

5. Sources and evidence

Sources may include Companies House, the Food Standards Agency and local authorities, the business’s own site/public channels, direct owner confirmation and other lawfully usable public evidence. Companies House is an evidence source, not a guarantee: filings may be incomplete or inaccurate, registered offices may not be trading locations, registered email addresses are not public, and sole traders may not appear there.

For every displayed fact we record: source/provenance, observed date, confirmed date where an identified source explicitly confirmed it, required finite review-by date, applicable location, confidence, freshness, dispute state, material conflicts and replacement history. We do not publish private contact details, home addresses not presented as trading addresses, special-category information or unsupported allegations.

Automated extraction or AI may draft or normalize information, but does not turn it into verified fact. Material ownership conflicts, exclusions, badge withdrawals and contested corrections require human review.

6. Claims and identity

Claiming requires evidence that the person is authorised for the organisation and location. Accepted routes may include a domain email plus secondary evidence, a one-time code sent to a public business contact, post to a confirmed trading address, or manual evidence review. A Companies House match alone and a social-media message alone are not conclusive.

Magic links and claim codes expire, are single-use and must not be shared. We may pause a claim, request proportionate evidence, resolve competing representatives, support ownership transfer or revoke access where there is fraud or an ownership change. Claim evidence is private and retained under the Retention Schedule.

7. Paid-services firewall

Payment for Connect, Grow, Growth Review, a Verified Kit, Local Supporter or any future service cannot influence:

• eligibility or an independence/identity decision;
• the evidence required, badge grant or badge withdrawal;
• access to ordinary edits, corrections/removals or their service level;
• organic ranking, freshness, relevance or answer matching;
• vouch weight, moderation outcome or awards; or
• editorial inclusion or tone.

Grow can provide longer aggregate history, privacy-safe themes, action notes, monitoring, private suggested drafts and owner-visible history/export convenience, but a draft changes nothing. The owner must separately hand selected fields to the ordinary Free Core fact-revision flow; the same provenance, moderation and ranking rules then apply. Growth Review is private and cannot write to the public record. Connect enables owner-approved native Requests and route monitoring but cannot influence public selection/order; ordinary external action links remain free. Rich source-grounded About content is Free Core and owner-correctable without payment. A Verified Kit is physical collateral for an already-valid status, not a way to obtain it; the digital badge/basic QR remain free.

Sponsorship is parked: the pilot has no inventory, checkout or sales workflow. Any later proposal requires separate approval, clear labelling, visual separation and a technical guarantee that sponsor status cannot enter organic recommendations.

8. Discovery and ranking

Organic ordering and answer selection use published, non-commercial factors such as query relevance, eligibility, fact confidence, location fit and neutral quality/safety constraints. The exact implementation may evolve to improve usefulness and resist gaming, but paid status and sponsorship are prohibited inputs and proxies for them are tested.

Community vouches, if used, are governed by the Review & Vouch Policy. They are contextual evidence, not proof of quality; their raw count must not simply reward longevity, footfall or a larger marketing audience. We publish a plain-language ranking explanation and maintain an audit test for paid/organic separation.

9. Vouches, tips and awards

Vouches require a lightweight verified participant and one versioned, visible eligibility confirmation covering: age 16+, genuine recent first-hand experience, no disqualifying connection, no incentive and an honest/lawful contribution. The limit is one vouch per participant per organisation in a rolling 12-month period. Optional tips are pre-moderated. Businesses may invite all customers neutrally but may not reward vouches, selectively solicit only happy customers or suppress criticism. Full rules, detection and appeals are in the Review & Vouch Policy.

Agree/disagree reactions are not part of the approved launch product. Any awards use a separate vote, eligibility period and published rules; they do not inherit vouches and cannot be bought.

10. Corrections, disputes, removal and appeal

Every listing and answer has a visible report route.

• Urgent safety/closure/identity issues: triaged promptly under the published operational target.
• Corrections: evidence is reviewed and the fact status/history updated. Paid customers receive no priority.
• Ownership or eligibility disputes: the public status may be paused while evidence is reviewed; material decisions receive a second-person check and a reasoned outcome.
• Removal/objection: a verified business request is actioned without dark patterns and no later than the applicable legal deadline; our operational target is within 28 days. A minimal suppression entry prevents re-seeding. Removal cannot erase the original public register.
• Appeal: the affected business or contributor may provide evidence through [INDEPENDENCE-APPEAL-ROUTE]; a person not responsible for the original decision reviews it where practicable.

Article 14 privacy information is delivered under the process in our Privacy Notice. Publishing a link on a listing is not treated as the only safeguard where we hold usable contact information.

11. Accuracy and limitations

Details change. We show evidence and recency so users can judge them and encourage users to confirm time-sensitive facts directly before relying on them. ByLocals does not endorse a business merely by listing it and does not act as a regulator, trade body or guarantor.

Questions, evidence challenges and complaints: [SUPPORT-EMAIL] or bylocals.co.uk/report. Privacy rights: [PRIVACY-EMAIL] or bylocals.co.uk/privacy-complaint.

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Version 1.0 · 10 Aug 2026 · draft for operational and qualified UK legal review before publication.