In the UK, I contacted a company called Tech Nation to provide an "endorsement" for me where they were supposed to assess my skill level, contributions to the sector and achievements so that I could get Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa. In the process, Tech Nation lied about my evidence in the first instance (saying my letters of recommendations come from people from the same company), and then lied about my work when I applied for the review (saying that I just used frameworks in my work whereas I actually created a documentation and testing frameworks myself). According to E-commerce directive article 8, if a company says that "their experts" will fairly and independently assess applications of software engineers, they must be part of regulated professions which protect dignity, honour and independence of the professional. Tech Nation does not hire experts themselves, and there is no one supervising them. There is no consumer protection against this fascist company. I complained about them to the Home Office, but they forwarded my complaint to Tech Nation itself.
As you can see, the UK gov created an "technology institute" which previously has been just a company helping the specific sector (silicon roundabout in London), which now is not overseen by anyone and does not obey any rules. It's discriminatory and when people pay £456 for an endorsement, they receive no protection against the "endorsing body" filtering out only those candidates that match its close-minded model of what it means to be a talent (i.e., a creative person who's life can be exploited by venture-capitalist-backed corporations in London), but when you show independence in thinking, your work and ideas, they get rid of you.
The question is, can an "endorsement review" be considered a publication, if it was part of a contract? It was published in a sense that it was sent to the Home Office, and deceived case-workers about me (complete slander).