Here's a better version of that post; I timed out on my edit. :rolleyes:
First off, I am not a lawyer. I'm married to a paralegal, so I hear some of this stuff at home, but none of this is legal advice.
That being said, from what I can tell, this has nothing to do with ethics (which would relate to the privacy of study participants, posting truthful information, etc.), and everything to do with trademark law.
I suspect that you need to have the proper disclaimers that these results are your own, <brand X> is a registered trademark of <company Y>, that you have no relationship with <company Y>, positive reviews do not constitute an endoresement of <product Z>, etc. So, that's one issue: the proper use of registered trademarks and company and product names.
As Ronald mentioned, libel and other civil issues may also be important. If you publish a disparaging review, an evil company may come out and try to sue for damages. Again, being truthful and including extensive details on testing methodology will be helpful. The more scientific you can be, the better. So, the second issue is liability for negative reviews and statements.
The third potential issue is related. What if you review a product as good, and a consumer uses it and suffers an injury as a result of using that product? Would your company incur any liability for that recommendation? Again, some sort of disclaimers may apply. (e.g., this review is intended to provide you with information on <product Z>. A positive review does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement of <product Z>, etc. <our company> makes no guarantees, blah blah blah.) So, the third issue is liability to consumers.
However, the place to check is with a lawyer and not on a computer forum. However, if you're too cheap or low budget to afford a handful of billable hours, you might go looking for some
NOLO guides. If you're not in the US, you'll have to find something equivalent for you. I'd also take a good look at Consumer Reports to see what kinds of hoops they jump through. But at the end of the day, there's no substitute for a good attorney. A small investment in sound advice at the beginning could spare you a lot of litigation expense in the future. -- Paul