---
id: method-comparative-claims
type: method
title: Comparative and superlative claims policy
summary: Any claim that ranks the business against others ("best", "leading", "largest", "longest-running", "top-rated") must define its terms, name its comparison set, state its method and cite its data, or it is recorded as rejected.
version: "1.0"
updated: 2026-09-11
---
## Requirements

A comparative or superlative claim is admissible only if all of the following are recorded.

**Definition of the attribute.** What "longest-running", "best" or "largest" measures. "Best" has no measurable definition and is rejected on its face. "Top-rated" is admissible only when restated as a metric: rating, count, platform, date.

**Definition of the comparison set.** Which businesses are being compared, with the geographic boundary and the business-type boundary stated. For Kelowna claims the default boundary is the City of Kelowna, West Kelowna and Lake Country.

**Method.** How the comparison set was enumerated, what data was collected for each member, and from where.

**Data.** The comparison table, published as an evidence record, with each competitor's value and its source.

**Handling of edge cases.** For duration claims, how name changes, acquisitions, dissolutions and re-openings, and gaps in trading are treated.

**Date.** Comparative claims are true at a date and must be re-run on a stated cycle.

## Statuses available

A comparative claim that meets all requirements can still be unverified if the data is incomplete, and can be rejected if a competitor is found with a better value. Meeting the requirements makes the claim assessable; it does not make it true.

## Application to the marketing site

Unqualified superlatives are not admitted to this knowledge base at all. Where the business wants to make a standing claim, it is recorded in its defensible form: "top-rated" becomes a dated metric (see the Google rating claim), and "longest-running" is split into a superlative that remains unverified and a qualified form that is supported. Navigator's own brand guide independently prohibits unqualified superlatives in marketing copy.