The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has begun a new phase of work focusing on curbing fake and misleading reviews.

In April last year, the provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 relating to unfair commercial practices came into force. Under these provisions, a number of so called ‘banned practices’ are deemed automatically unfair in all circumstances, regardless of the impact on consumers’ transaction decisions.

One such banned practice relates to fake and misleading reviews, such that it is an unfair commercial practice to:

• Submit, or commission another person to submit or write, either (i) a fake consumer review or (ii) a consumer review that conceals the fact it has been incentivised;

• Publish consumer reviews, or consumer review information, in a misleading way;

• Publish consumer reviews, or consumer review information, without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent the publication of fake or misleading reviews and to remove any such reviews; and

• Offer services to traders to submit or commission fake or misleading reviews.

As part of its work in this area, the CMA has announced investigations into five businesses and signalled that it is concentrating particularly on “the key stages in the online review ecosystem – from how reviews are obtained, to the way they are moderated and displayed, to the star ratings people so often rely on”.

Alongside publishing ‘top tips’ for consumers on how to avoid fake reviews, the CMA has directed businesses to guidance that it published last year on how they can comply with the law on fake and misleading reviews. It has also reminded them that infringements may require businesses to change their practices, or result in fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

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