Ethics Policy
Editorial independence, affiliate disclosures, gifts and hospitality, personal financial interests, and source confidentiality at The Luxury Playbook.
Why we publish an ethics policy
The Luxury Playbook covers investment, wealth, and luxury asset categories where misaligned incentives — undisclosed affiliations, paid-for endorsements, conflicted bylines — have historically damaged reader trust across the category. We publish this policy so that readers, sources, and partners can verify how we handle those incentives.
Editorial independence
Editorial decisions — what we cover, how we frame it, which sources we quote, whether a piece is published — are made by our editorial team. Commercial relationships do not influence editorial coverage. No sponsor, advertiser, partner, or subject of coverage is shown articles before publication, and none has editing rights.
Affiliate disclosures
Some articles contain affiliate links — links that, if clicked and acted on, may generate a commission for The Luxury Playbook. We apply the following rules to every affiliate link we publish:
- The link uses the HTML attribute
rel="sponsored", as required by Google's Webmaster Guidelines. - A disclosure statement appears at the foot of every article containing affiliate links.
- Affiliate relationships do not determine editorial verdicts. We do not promise favourable coverage, higher placement, or positive language in exchange for affiliate commissions.
- When a review is specifically of an affiliate partner, we disclose that relationship in the opening paragraphs of the review.
Paid partnerships and sponsored articles
We occasionally publish articles produced in partnership with commercial partners — watchmakers, private banks, brokerages, luxury real-estate developers, and others who engage our editorial team to produce branded content. Every such piece is labelled at the foot of the article with the exact wording "Produced in partnership with [Brand]". Paid outbound links use rel="sponsored".
Editorial coverage of the same partners (as opposed to partnership pieces) is kept separate and independent. The partnerships desk and the editorial desk do not share budgets or decision-making.
Gifts and hospitality
Members of our editorial team may accept the following as part of normal press access:
- Press invitations to product launches, auction previews, conference sessions, and industry events.
- Product loans for review (watches, vehicles, technology) — returned after the review is completed.
- Standard press catering and travel provided in connection with a specific reporting assignment.
We do not accept:
- Cash, equivalents, or stock in subjects of coverage.
- Gifts valued above nominal press-access levels, other than declared product loans.
- Paid travel or hospitality from a commercial party where the journey is not substantively related to a reporting assignment.
Personal financial interests
Members of our editorial team disclose to the Head of Editorial any personal financial interest in a specific investment, firm, or asset class they are covering. Where a conflict could reasonably be perceived, the writer is either removed from coverage or the conflict is disclosed at the foot of the article.
We do not trade on, or write to influence the price of, individual securities, cryptocurrencies, or specific asset lots held by our team. Members of the team do not act on their own articles in the 30 days following publication of a piece that could move a specific market.
Sources and confidentiality
We honour off-the-record agreements made with named sources. Anonymous or off-the-record material is used only where there is a substantive public-interest case for withholding the source's name, and is never used to make unverifiable claims against a named party.
Corrections and accountability
See Corrections Policy for how we handle errors. Editorial decisions and disclosures are the responsibility of the Head of Editorial, Stefanos Moschopoulos.
Questions and reports
If you have reason to believe any of these principles have not been followed, please email connect@theluxuryplaybook.com. Submissions are handled by the Head of Editorial.