Misleading Discount Content Guide

Key Points

• Prices in content must match the product page.
• Expired discount content must be removed.

A Guide to Accurate Pricing and Discounts

This guide is for creators making content about discounts on TikTok Shop. Keeping your product pricing clear and trustworthy is key to building a great relationship with your customers. This guide will walk you through the best practices for presenting promotional and discounted prices in your content on TikTok Shop. This ensures your followers have a positive shopping experience.
In this guide, you will learn about:

• what a misleading discount claim is
• how to check discount details before you post
• best practices for mentioning coupons, savings, and deals
• examples of safer and riskier wording
• what may happen if content includes a misleading discount claim

How to Comply with Our Policies

To ensure your content is compliant and customer-friendly, please follow these guidelines. For more in-depth information:

• Match Your Prices: The promotional or discounted price shown in your content must exactly match the price on the product detail page when you upload your video.
  • Incorrect example: in the short video, the price is lower than the product's actual selling price

• Disclose Promotion Terms: Be transparent with your audience. Clearly state any important terms for your promotion, like how long it lasts, any conditions for getting the discount, and if it's only available for a limited time or in limited quantities.
• Keep Promotions Current: Do not display expired promotional or discount prices. If a sale is over, it is time to take down or update that content.
  • False example: Double discount ends in 5hrs by the content post from Jan 5th and stays online for a long time
• Avoid Vague Comparisons: Unsupported price comparisons are not allowed. If you're comparing prices, make sure you have a clear and accurate basis for the comparison.
• Be Honest About Time-Sensitive Deals: If you are running a flash sale with a claim like "sale ends today" or "only 2 hours left," make sure it is true. Content that stays live after the promotion ends without being updated can be considered misleading.
  • False example: Creator posted a large amount of expired discount content and did not delete them in time.

For more details, please review the False, Misleading, and Inconsistent Information Policy

Best Practices

What to do

• Check the current product price, coupon, and discount right before you post.
• Make sure the offer is available to viewers who click through from your content.
• Use wording that matches the real offer, including the correct discount amount and any conditions that matter.
• Use flexible wording when an offer may change, such as asking viewers to check the product page for the latest details.
• Update, unlink, or remove content if the promoted offer expires or changes and the claim is no longer accurate.

What to avoid

• Do not exaggerate the savings if the real discount is smaller than what you say.
• Do not promote a coupon or deal that viewers cannot actually receive or apply.
• Do not use unsupported superlatives such as "lowest price ever" unless you can back them up.
• Do not keep shoppable content live with an outdated or expired discount claim.

Here are some examples to help you understand what to do and what to avoid.

Examples of safer and riskier wording

Safer wording	Riskier wording to avoid
"This is 30% off right now" when the product is actually 30% off.	"50% off!" when the real discount is much smaller.
"Use the coupon on the product page to save. Check there for details."	"70% off" when viewers cannot actually receive that discount.
"Prices and coupons can change, so check the product page for the latest details."	"Lowest price ever" without proof to support that claim.

Avoid Expired Discount

You are encouraged to keep advertised discount information accurate and up to date.
When a promotion ends or a coupon expires, videos that still display the old promotional discount may create confusion for viewers.
To avoid viewer confusion, you are encouraged to regularly review videos containing time-sensitive discount information and make updates when needed.

Avoid Misleading or Fake Discount

When you publish videos or conduct LIVE sessions, you should ensure that the discounts promoted are accurate and valid. If the advertised discount is lower than the official discount, it is a violation of our Fair Pricing Policy.

How to Manage Your Discount Content?

Step 1: Review Previous Discount Videos First

You should first review the latest 90-day short videos that include price benefits, discount claims, or promotional messages. You should pay special attention to the following content:

1. Limited-time discount claims
   • Such as “lowest price today,” “limited-time offer,” or “last day.”
2. Specific price or discount claims
   • Such as “50% off,” “save $XX,” “final price $XX,” or “$XX cheaper than usual.”
3. Benefit claims that may mislead users
   • Even if the video does not show a specific price, it should still be reviewed if it could cause the viewers to believe that an offer is still available now.
   • The current product page no longer supports the promotional claim in the video
   • The wording may lead the viewers to believe that the offer is still active

Step 2: Delete Violating or Expired Discount Videos

If the discount information in a video is no longer valid, or if the video creates the possibility of misleading the viewers, we recommend deleting the video as soon as possible to prevent previous content from continuing to add compliance risk.

Step 3: Build a Regular Clean-up Process

If you frequently post promotional short videos, we recommend setting up a regular clean-up routine. For example, after a campaign ends, you should review and handle related previous videos in time so that expired discount content does not remain online.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: How is the policy on misleading discount content enforced?The policy aims to address large-scale, systematic violations rather than penalizing occasional or unintentional errors.
Account restrictions are only triggered when you post an exceptionally high volume of non-compliant content. For example, enforcement actions apply to creators who accumulate 300 or more short videos containing misleading discounts within a 3-month period.
Accounts that reach this threshold may face temporary restrictions. In such cases, the account will be limited to posting 3 shoppable short videos per week for a 14-day period. Additionally, you will receive a review ticket every 7 days and must remove or update the non-compliant content.
By maintaining good business practices and developing a healthy habit of regularly reviewing and maintaining your video content, you can effectively avoid triggering such cases.
Q2: What if I fix my content within the first 7 days?If you complete the self-rectification within the first 7 days, the second review ticket will be canceled, and account functions will be restored.
Q3: What happens if I don't rectify the content within 14 days?Failure to rectify the misleading content within the 14-day period may lead to more severe actions, including a permanent e-commerce ban. It is really important to take action quickly and ensure all prices and discounts are not expired.

Q4:

Can I still talk about discounts in my content?
Yes. You can mention discounts, coupons, deals, and savings as long as the claim is accurate, current, and available to viewers.

Q5:

What makes a discount claim misleading?
A discount claim may be misleading if the promoted savings are larger than the real offer, expired, unavailable, or different from what viewers can actually get through the product link or shopping path.

Q6:

What should I check before I post a discount claim?
Check the current product price, coupon availability, discount amount, and whether viewers can actually apply or receive the offer you mention.

Q7:

What should I do if a discount changes after I post?
If the offer changes and your content is no longer accurate, update the claim if possible, or remove or unlink the content so viewers are not misled.

Q8:

Will older content be reviewed?
Current guidance says existing content is generally not re-reviewed by default, but it may still be reviewed if it is flagged, including through strong viewer reporting signals.

Q9:

What can happen if my content includes a misleading discount claim?
Content with misleading discount claims may be limited or removed.

Q10:

Will this affect my account?
Current guidance says this review is applied at the content level. It does not add an account strike, but the content itself may still face enforcement.

Q11:

Can I appeal a decision?
Yes. If you believe a decision is incorrect, you can submit an appeal for review.

Additional Resources

For complete details, please refer to our official policies:

• False, Misleading, and Inconsistent Information Policy