Fake reviews and UK law: what changed in April 2025
Fake reviews used to sit in a grey area of UK consumer law. Since 6 April 2025 they are explicitly banned, and the regulator can fine businesses directly. Here is what changed.
For years, fake reviews in the UK were tackled under general rules against misleading consumers. That meant proving, case by case, that a practice was unfair. Since 6 April 2025, that has changed. Fake reviews are now on a list of practices that are banned outright.
This post explains what the new rules cover and what they mean for both shoppers and businesses. It's a general guide, not legal advice.
The law in one paragraph
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (the DMCC Act) replaced the UK's previous consumer protection regulations. Its consumer protection rules came into force on 6 April 2025. The Act includes a list of commercial practices that are considered unfair in all circumstances, with no need to show that anyone was actually misled. Several of them are about reviews.
What's now banned
In summary, the banned practices relating to reviews are:
- Writing or commissioning fake reviews. A fake review is one that claims to be based on a real experience of a product or service, but isn't. That includes reviews written by the business itself, its staff, or someone paid to write them.
- Hiding incentivised reviews. A review that was given in exchange for something (money, a discount, a free product, entry into a prize draw) must be clearly shown as incentivised. Hiding the incentive is banned; disclosing it is not.
- Publishing reviews in a misleading way. This includes presenting reviews so they give a false impression, such as suppressing negative reviews while showing positive ones.
- Offering or advertising fake review services. Selling reviews, or offering to write or post them, is itself banned.
Businesses and platforms that publish consumer reviews are also expected to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake and misleading reviews. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance on what that means in practice.
Why the change matters: the fines
The bigger change is who enforces the rules and how. The CMA can now investigate and decide for itself that consumer law has been broken, rather than having to take a business to court first. It can impose fines of up to 10% of a business's global turnover.
That turns fake reviews from a reputational risk into a serious financial one.
What it means if you run a business
- Don't buy reviews, or write your own. This includes asking friends, family or staff to post reviews as if they were customers.
- If you offer an incentive, make sure it's disclosed. And never make an incentive depend on the review being positive.
- Don't pick and choose who you ask. Inviting only the customers you expect to be happy, or filtering out unhappy ones before they reach a review site, risks presenting reviews in a misleading way.
- Don't hide or bury negative reviews on your own website or in marketing.
- Check what your review software does. Some tools screen customers automatically before deciding who gets a review invitation.
What it means if you're a shopper
The law doesn't make fake reviews disappear, but it gives regulators real power to act against businesses that use them. If you think a business is posting fake reviews:
- report the review to the platform it appears on;
- report the business to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service.
And keep reading reviews with a sceptical eye. Our guide to spotting a fake review covers the signals that genuinely help.
How Vouch Rate handles it
Our guidelines already reflect these rules:
- Reviews from people with no real dealing with the business are removed, as are reviews from staff, owners or competitors.
- Incentivised reviews that hide the incentive are removed. Reviews that disclose it are not.
- Businesses must invite every eligible customer, not just the ones they expect to be happy. Selective invitation breaks our business terms.
- Businesses can't delete, hide or reorder reviews, whatever plan they're on. You can read more in who owns the reviews.
The rules are published so that anyone, including a regulator, can check them against what we actually do.