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Loyalty / Reward

vr.wm-eco-029 · wm-eco-029-loyalty-reward

Represent one member relationship to one loyalty program, with evidenced benefit eligibility, reward activity and point balances where applicable.

World Models Society, people and institutions SOC.ECO.LOY
Bundle → Layer → Finding → QuestionsClassifiersWhat it isWhy it existsDistinguishing featuresWhat robots and AI may and may not doMoral aspectsOwnersLinks to other meta-modelsIdentity and identifiersDirect propertiesRecognitionCapabilities and actionsHazards and failure modesStandards and interfacesContext of useSources

Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled

3 bundles · 4 layers · 5 findings · 10 questions

Programme and membership The programme rules and who is enrolled in them.

Programme terms

Earning, tier and redemption rules of the programme.

Programme rules

The published terms that govern earning, tiers, expiry and redemption.

  1. Which version of the programme terms applies to this member?
  2. Can the operator change earning or redemption rules, and with what notice?

Membership

The enrolment of one customer in a programme.

Member enrolment

A member account with its consent and tier status.

  1. When and through which channel did the member enrol, and what consents were given?
  2. Which tier does the member hold, and when is it reassessed?
Points and balances What a member has earned and what it is worth.

Accrual and balance

Points or credits earned, adjusted and held.

Point accrual

Points credited for a qualifying transaction or activity.

  1. Which transaction or activity earned these points, and under which rule?
  2. Were any points reversed because the original purchase was returned?

Balance and expiry

Current balance with expiry dates of each tranche.

  1. What is the member's current balance, and which points expire when?
  2. Was the member notified before points expired?
Benefits and redemption How balances turn into rewards.

Redemption

Exchange of points for rewards, vouchers or partner benefits.

Redemption event

A reward claimed against the balance.

  1. Which reward was redeemed, for how many points, and was it fulfilled?
  2. Was the redemption made by the member or by someone else using the account?

Classifiers Filled

Family
World Models
Category
Society, people and institutions
Entry kind
relationship
Navigation path
NAV.SOC.ECO.LOY
Domain
SOC.ECO.LOY
Industry
Cross-industry
Tags
loyaltyrewardsoc.eco.loy

What it is Filled

A loyalty or reward programme is an arrangement in which a business enrols customers as members, credits them with points, tiers or benefits for qualifying behaviour and lets them redeem those benefits under programme terms. It covers membership, balances and the benefit lifecycle; one-off discounts and the general customer relationship are outside it.

In scope

  • Membership identity and enrollment evidence with versioned terms bindings
  • Member-specific earning, adjustments, balance observations and optional point lots
  • Tier assignments and non-point benefits, redemption requests and outcome references
  • Expiry, suspension, closure, disputes and recipient-scoped evidence continuity

Out of scope

  • Design or operation of a shared program rule engine, campaign or reward catalog
  • Party identity and full customer relationship lifecycle; customer profiles remain external
  • Payment, gift-card stored value, currency issuance, securities, tax and general ledger accounting
  • Purchase and fulfillment execution, marketing delivery, credit underwriting and general fraud detection
  • One-off promotions without a program relationship; external offers can still be referenced
  • Detailed coalition settlement, household pooling and transferable assets without an adopted profile

Why it exists Filled

Represent one member relationship to one loyalty program, with evidenced benefit eligibility, reward activity and point balances where applicable.

Distinguishing features Filled

  • It records earned benefits and their redemption, not the broader customer account relationship it belongs to.
  • Points behave like a deferred obligation of the operator, with balances, expiry and reversals.
  • Distinct from a one-off promotion or coupon, which has no membership or running balance.
  • Distinct from a subscription, where the customer pays for recurring access rather than earning rewards.

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

  • Change a member's balance without a recorded transaction or rule.
  • Use programme data for profiling or marketing beyond the consents given.
  • Let points expire or devalue in breach of the terms in force.
  • Redeem points on a member's behalf without the member's instruction.
  • Share member data with programme partners without a lawful basis.

Only with a human decision

  • Changing programme terms that reduce the value of existing balances.
  • Closing a member account for suspected fraud or abuse.
  • Granting manual point adjustments above a set threshold.

May

  • Report a member's balance, tier and upcoming expiries to that member.
  • Credit points for qualifying transactions under the published rules.
  • Flag unusual accrual or redemption patterns that suggest fraud or account takeover.
  • Remind members of expiring points through channels they consented to.

Moral aspects Filled

  • Programmes collect detailed purchase histories, which reveal habits and need privacy protection.
  • Unilateral changes to rules or expiry can take value that members reasonably expected to keep.
  • Tier and reward design can steer vulnerable customers into spending more than they intend.

Who is affected

  • Programme members
  • Operating businesses and their partners
  • Customers who are not members and pay the same prices

Owners Filled

Steward

The programme operator, usually the marketing or customer function of the business, answers for terms and balances.

Roles

Program steward
Maintain applicable rule references and accountable operator mandates
Membership custodian
Maintain membership continuity and evidence quality
Authorized member or representative
Inspect the permitted view and provide scoped benefit instructions
Reward reviewer
Review disputed entries, harmful changes and exceptional adjustments
Privacy and records officer
Govern access, purposes, retention, holds and erasure

Master systems

  • Loyalty management systems
  • Customer relationship management systems
  • Point-of-sale systems

Links to other meta-models Filled

references

  • WM-ORG-014 - Candidate registry parent binding; customer relationship identity and lifecycle remain outside this membership. Pin the neighbor specification before integration.
  • External program definition - Required semantic program reference with a versioned applicability binding; no mandatory implementation package or local program administration.
  • External purchase and fulfillment records - Qualifying activity and benefit delivery retain external master identity; no payment or fulfillment operations are imported.
  • External accounting assessment - Optional specialist classification and valuation reference; reward points and accounting amounts must not be conflated.

aligned

  • Schema.org ProgramMembership and MemberProgram - Conceptual membership and program separation only; public markup is not permission to disclose personal records.
  • PROV-O - Selected attribution and derivation mapping only; no implemented ontology conformance or authenticity guarantee.

neighbor

  • WM-ORG-014 Customer / Account Relationship - Registry parent candidate is retained as a reference, not inheritance. Loyalty membership does not own the general customer relationship, party identity or its lifecycle.
  • Shared program and tier definition - One program may serve many memberships. Pin the governing definition and effective version; do not duplicate program administration in each member record.
  • Reward event and benefit fulfillment - Accrual and redemption events have their own IDs within the relationship history. A reservation, redemption acknowledgement and actual fulfillment are distinct observations.
  • Subscription and offer - Paid eligibility may coexist with loyalty. Neither a fee nor the absence of points removes membership from scope; subscription billing and offer lifecycle remain external.
  • Accounting and stored value - A reward balance is not automatically money or an accounting liability. Refer specialist classification and valuation to separate financial masters; IFRIC 13 is historical.

parent

  • WM-ORG-014

What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled

Identity and identifiers required Filled

  • A membership is identified by the operator's member number, often carried on a card or app.
  • Accrual and redemption entries reference the originating transaction identifier.

Direct properties not applicable Not applicable

Not applicable

A loyalty programme is a commercial arrangement with no physical properties to measure.

Recognition optional Filled

  • A loyalty record has a member, a programme, a balance or tier and terms of earning and redemption.
  • Often confused with a gift card, a coupon, a subscription or the customer account itself.

Capabilities and actions required Filled

  • Points can be accrued, reversed, transferred where the terms allow, redeemed and expired.
  • Tiers can be recalculated at set intervals from qualifying activity.

Hazards and failure modes required Filled

  • Account takeover and theft of point balances.
  • Privacy harm from combining purchase histories across partners.
  • Disputes when balances or tiers change without clear notice.

Standards and interfaces required Filled

  • schema.org ProgramMembership for public membership description.
  • Payment and point-of-sale integrations that pass transaction references for accrual.

Context of use required Filled

  • Used in retail, travel, hospitality and financial services.
  • Subject to consumer protection and data protection law, and to revenue recognition rules for unredeemed points.

Sources Filled

  1. MemberProgram - Schema.org
  2. ProgramMembership - Schema.org
  3. MemberProgramTier - Schema.org
  4. Customer loyalty schemes - Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
  5. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 - European Parliament and Council of the European Union
  6. Loyalty Program - Square developer documentation
  7. Loyalty API - Square developer documentation
  8. IFRIC 13 Customer Loyalty Programmes - status and history - IFRS Foundation
  9. PROV-O: The PROV Ontology - World Wide Web Consortium
  10. IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (IFRS Foundation)
  11. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 General Data Protection Regulation (European Union)
  12. Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices (European Union)

Open questions

  • Restore independent external review before any canonical or publishable-draft promotion.
  • Verify current source releases, legal and accounting applicability and approved terms profiles; research pooled and coalition programs before extending scope.
  • Develop nested schemas, pinned mappings and fixtures for duplicate events, reversed credits after redemption, concurrent claims, clock boundaries, failed fulfillment and lawful erasure.
  • Independent external review remains waived; local self-audit is not provider agreement.
  • Direct HTTP status is unmeasured under the owner-reported sandbox block; current versions, source licensing and claim applicability need coordinator review.
  • No executable nested instance schema, event ordering protocol, concurrency implementation or adversarial fixtures are delivered.
  • Accounting classification, tax, unclaimed property, financial regulation, current consumer law and local privacy applicability require qualified profile work.
  • Household pooling, coalition settlement, migration, transferable rewards and complex cross-border cases remain profile gaps.
  • Schema.org development pages and vendor API docs require release pins and tested mappings before operational use.

Machine files

Card as JSON Specification AGENTS.md Source Card backlog vercy.card/1

Provenance

world-models research · reviewable-draft

Built from: models/wm-eco-029-loyalty-reward/spec.yaml, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-eco-029-loyalty-reward.json