Competitor comparison claims factually accurate and verifiable

FTC Act §5 and FTC comparative advertising guidance require that claims about competitor products be truthful, verifiable, and not misleading. A comparison table that marks a competitor feature as absent when that feature shipped six months ago exposes the company to FTC action and potential trade libel claims under state law. Stale competitor pricing shown as a cost comparison can constitute deception if the competitor reduced their price and the claim is now materially false. These claims are high-profile and easy for competitors or journalists to fact-check.

Establish a quarterly review process for all comparison content and surface verification metadata directly on the page.

Comparison content maintenance checklist:

1. Add 'Last verified' date to every comparison table footer
   Example: "Competitor data last verified February 2026.
   Source: competitor public pricing and documentation."

2. Feature comparison rows
   - Link each competitor row to their public docs or pricing page
   - If a feature is 'limited' or 'coming soon' for a competitor,
     say that rather than marking it unavailable
   - Review within 30 days of a competitor feature release

3. Price comparisons
   - Show prices from the competitor's published pricing page
   - Add: "As of [month year]; see [URL] for current pricing"
   - Do not compare per-seat rates unless that is how the
     competitor bills — different billing models are not comparable

4. Performance benchmarks
   - Publish methodology at /docs/benchmarks
   - Include: test date, environment, dataset, version tested
   - Disclose if the benchmark was self-run rather than third-party