INDEPENDENCE POLICY
Nobody buys a good result here.
TARISA earns money from providers and from buyers at the same time. That is a real conflict, and platforms that pretend otherwise are the ones you should worry about. Here is exactly how we hold the two apart, in language specific enough to hold us to.
The four rules
1. Providers cannot purchase a positive verification outcome
No amount of money — membership, featured placement, sponsorship or agency retainer — changes what a check finds or what a status says. The method, the date, the evidence and the limitation are published whether the finding is favourable, conditional or adverse.
2. Advertising is labelled, and excluded from ranking and from assurance decisions
Featured placement is paid, it is marked as paid, and it does not move a provider up the organic order or influence any verification outcome. If we ever cannot label something clearly as advertising, we will not sell it.
3. Inspectors declare conflicts, and high-risk cases are reviewed twice
Every inspector declares conflicts on every case. No inspector is paid more for a pass than a fail, or for a client buying more. Inspectors are rotated. Repeated pairings, abnormal pass rates and identical evidence patterns are monitored, and random reinspection is used as a control.
4. Verified never means guaranteed
Every status carries its scope, its date and its expiry. We do not sell a badge that implies more than the check performed. We do not describe verification as insurance, and we will not, because it is not.
The full list, in both directions.
What a provider can buy
- A curated profile
- A professional profile with case studies and analytics
- Featured placement, labelled as advertising
- Category sponsorship, named
- Separately contracted marketing services
What a provider cannot buy
- A verification status
- A badge
- A higher organic position
- A favourable finding
- The removal of an unfavourable finding
- The suppression of a complaint
- Advance notice of an inspection
- Influence over who inspects them
- Influence over content, guides or editorial
What decides who appears, and in what order.
Organic position is determined by relevance to the request, category and location match, the completeness and freshness of the profile, the verification layers actually held, measured response time to enquiries through TARISA, and complaint and outcome history.
Payment is not on that list and will not be added to it. Advertising appears in labelled slots, separately from the organic order.
A related-party relationship, declared.
Some providers will want help with websites, content and digital marketing, and that work may be delivered by an agency partner related to TARISA’s founders. Rather than deny that, we declare it and we wall it off.
- Separate contracts
- Separate invoices
- Separate data access — agency staff do not see verification case files or influence status decisions
- No privileged ranking, ever
- Any referral fee is disclosed
- A provider who buys agency services and one who does not are treated identically by the platform
If you ever see evidence that this firewall has failed, tell us, and tell us publicly if you would rather.
Sponsorship: named, and editorially powerless.
Category sponsorship underwrites the guides, research and distribution in a category. Sponsors are named on the content they support.
Sponsors do not choose topics, see drafts before publication, approve or veto content, or influence any ranking or verification outcome. If a sponsor’s own category produces an unflattering finding, we publish it. A sponsor who cannot live with that should not sponsor.
If you think we have broken one of these rules.
Tell us. Any client, any provider, any partner, anonymously if you prefer.
Every report is investigated by someone with no involvement in the case it concerns. Where a breach is found, we correct the outcome, tell the affected parties, and act on whoever was responsible. Where a report is not upheld, we say why.
independence@tarisa.co.zw
Because a rule you cannot read is not a rule.
Every marketplace says it is independent. Almost none of them will tell you what their advertisers get, how their ranking works, or who reviews their reviewers.
We publish this because it is the only version of the claim that means anything, and because we would rather be judged against a standard we wrote down than against one we implied.