Fake reviews law: what UK small businesses must check now

If your website shows reviews or customer comments, or you ask customers for Google reviews, this applies to you. On 14 October 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA, the UK government body that protects shoppers and makes sure businesses play fair) published an update on its powers to enforce consumer law. Those powers were then 18 months old. The update confirmed that its investigations into Autotrader, Feefo, Dignity, Just Eat and Pasta Evangelists over misleading reviews are carrying on, with more news expected "in the coming months". On pricing it was blunt: "The rules are clear, and businesses have had ample time to comply." In other words, it feels businesses have had long enough to get pricing right. On reviews, it pointed businesses to the guidance it has already published, and the review rules have been in force since April 2025.

What changed?

Since April 2025, a law called the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned some review practices outright. The CMA's short guide for businesses sorts them into three groups:

• Fake reviews: reviews that look or claim to be real but are not.
• Secretly rewarded reviews: reviews where the person was paid or given something in return, and that is kept hidden. The law calls these "concealed incentivised reviews".
• False or misleading review information: including star ratings and review counts built on fake reviews, or on only the best ones picked out.

The same law lets the CMA act without going to court first. It can investigate, order a business to change how it works, and fine it up to 10% of its worldwide turnover (its total sales across the world). It set this out when it opened the five review cases in March 2026.

The October update shows the CMA is using these powers. In the six months since April 2026, it:

• opened six new consumer investigations, bringing the total to 20;
• settled seven cases;
• ordered more than £2.3 million in compensation for customers;
• handed out fines of more than £11.8 million.

These cover all consumer cases, not just reviews, but they show where things are heading.

What are the five investigations about?

The CMA stresses it has not decided anything yet. But the cases show what it is looking for. According to its March announcement:

• Autotrader and Feefo: whether some 1-star reviews that went through Feefo's checking process were left off Autotrader's website and out of its star ratings.
• Dignity: whether staff were asked to write positive reviews of its crematoria.
• Just Eat: whether the way it worked out ratings pushed up some restaurants' and grocers' scores.
• Pasta Evangelists: whether customers got money off future orders for leaving 5-star reviews on delivery apps, without this being made clear.

None of these is an obvious scam with bought reviews. They are everyday habits: keeping bad reviews out, asking staff to help, nudging customers with a discount. That is the lesson.

Does this affect my business website?

Very likely. The CMA's detailed guidance (CMA208) makes clear the rules cover reviews a business shows about itself, for example on its own website, as well as review websites. The guidance also says a customer review does not have to be written by a customer to count. If it is meant to sway whether people buy, the rules apply.

Here are the habits it warns about that small businesses often fall into.

Asking staff to write reviews. The guidance says commissioning a review (getting someone to write it for you) "could include a trader requesting a member of staff to write a review of the trader's product". So asking staff counts. It also says hiding that a reviewer works for you, owns shares in the business or supplies you may be misleading.

Rewarding reviews. The guidance says commissioning is "not limited to making monetary payments". Discounts, vouchers, free products and invites to events all count. A reward is only legal if it is made clear and the review still reflects a real experience.

Only asking happy customers. The guidance says cherry-picking (choosing only the good ones) can happen "by encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews". Sending review requests only after a job went well, or stopping and starting requests to manage your score, is the kind of thing it describes.

Showing only your best reviews. Showing only the good ones, when they do not match what reviewers say overall, is listed as misleading.

Pressuring people to change bad reviews. One of the CMA's own examples is offering a refund or gift card to a customer if they remove the negative comments from their review.

So what is allowed? The guidance says emailing customers in general to ask whether they would like to leave a review, without steering what they say, "is not prohibited", meaning it is fine. It also says a prize draw where nobody is guaranteed a prize is unlikely to count as commissioning a review.

How do Google's rules compare?

Google's rules for reviews on Google Maps are stricter than the law. Its rules for what people post on Maps say businesses must not offer rewards "such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" for reviews at all, even if they are open about it. Google also bans reviews from people with a conflict of interest, including people who work for the business. And it says businesses must not "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers", which means only asking the customers you expect to be happy. Google removes reviews that break these rules.

Some websites add hidden code (called structured data) that asks Google to show gold stars next to the site in search results. Google's guidelines on review stars say that if a business controls the reviews about itself, its pages describing the business cannot get those stars. So adding star-rating code to your own reviews page will not get you stars in Google, and it may wrongly suggest your reviews come from an independent source.

What should I do now?

Work through this checklist, and repeat it whenever you change how you collect reviews.

When we build a website, we link customer comments to where they were first posted, and keep star-rating code off pages where the business controls the reviews. It is honest, and it is what Google supports.

Why does honest reviewing matter so much?

Customers trust reviews, which is why they matter. The law now protects that trust directly, and the CMA has made clear it expects businesses to follow its guidance. Honest reviews are safer, more convincing, and less likely to be wiped out when Google clears out reviews that break its rules.

If you want your website's reviews and testimonials checked, call us on 01752 741969.

Sources

1. Direct consumer enforcement: 18 months on (CMA blog, 14 October 2026)
2. Fake and misleading reviews: 5 businesses under CMA investigation
3. Online consumer reviews (CMA case page)
4. Fake reviews guidance (CMA208)
5. Short guide for businesses publishing consumer reviews
6. Google Maps user contributed content policy
7. Google review snippet structured data guidelines