UK fake reviews law: what the DMCC Act means for local businesses
For years, a few reviews from friends and family looked like a harmless head start. It no longer is. Since April 2025, fake reviews have been banned outright in the UK, the regulator can fine businesses directly, and enforcement has started. Most local businesses are nowhere near the line, but some common habits now sit on the wrong side of it.
BY CHRIS EVANS · UPDATED 2 OCTOBER 2026 · 7 MIN READ
Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews, and presenting reviews in a misleading way. It applies to businesses of every size. The Competition and Markets Authority can fine up to 10% of global turnover. To stay compliant, never write or commission reviews, ban staff and family reviews, offer nothing in return for a Google review, show reviews fairly on your own site, and ask every genuine customer the same way.
What changed in April 2025
Fake reviews were already risky under the old Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. The DMCC Act made them explicit. Schedule 20 of the Act lists commercial practices that are automatically unfair and banned in all circumstances, whatever their effect on customers, and review practices were added to that list.
The rules came into force on 6 April 2025. The CMA published its guidance two days earlier and gave businesses a three-month grace period to get their house in order, which ended in July 2025. Fake reviews are among the CMA’s stated enforcement priorities.
What the law bans
Fake reviews
Writing, or paying or asking someone else to write, a review that claims to come from a real experience when it does not. Positive reviews for yourself and negative reviews about a competitor are both covered.
Concealed incentivised reviews
Reviews where the reviewer received money, a discount, a freebie or another benefit, and that is not made clear. Commissioning them is banned as well as writing them.
Misleading presentation
Publishing reviews or ratings in a way that misleads, such as hiding the negative ones, mixing up reviews from different products, or presenting old feedback as current.
Taking reasonable steps
Businesses that publish reviews, including on their own websites, must take reasonable steps to prevent and remove fake and concealed incentivised reviews.
Where local businesses get caught out
Very few small businesses set out to break the law. The risk comes from habits that used to feel normal.
- Friends and family reviews to get started. A new business asking people who have never been customers to leave five stars is commissioning fake reviews.
- Staff reviewing their own workplace. A review from an employee written as if they were a customer is not a genuine customer experience.
- “Ten percent off for a review”. Under the Act this is only lawful if clearly disclosed, and on Google it breaks the rules either way.
- Review swaps. Two local businesses agreeing to review each other are writing reviews that are not based on real experience.
- Showing only five-star reviews on your website. Selectively displaying the best reviews in a way that gives a false picture can count as misleading presentation.
- Buying a review package. Agencies that promise a set number of five-star reviews are selling exactly what the law bans.
The penalties
The biggest change is who enforces and how. The CMA can now decide that consumer law has been broken and impose fines itself, without first going to court, of up to 10% of a business’s global annual turnover. Trading Standards also enforce consumer protection law.
There is a Google consequence too. Following undertakings Google gave the CMA in January 2025, Google has committed to tougher processes against fake reviews in the UK, including sanctions on businesses that benefit from them. In practice that can mean reviews removed, new reviews restricted, and a public warning shown on a Business Profile. Our suspension guide covers what happens when a profile is penalised.
The law and Google’s rules are different
It is worth being clear about one difference, because it trips businesses up. The DMCC Act bans incentivised reviews when the incentive is hidden. Google’s review policy goes further and bans incentives for Google reviews entirely, disclosed or not. Google also prohibits review gating: asking only the customers you expect to be happy.
So a disclosed discount might keep you within the law and still get your Google reviews removed. The safest rule for Google is the simplest: ask every genuine customer, offer nothing, and let them write whatever they think. Our rules guide covers Google’s side in full.
A six-step compliance checklist
Never write or commission a review
No reviews written by you, your staff, an agency or anyone paid to post them. That includes negative reviews about a competitor.
Put a staff and family rule in writing
One line in your staff handbook: employees, owners, and their friends and family must not review the business. Share it with new starters.
Offer nothing in return for a Google review
The law bans incentives that are hidden. Google goes further and bans incentives for reviews altogether, so on Google the answer is simply no discounts, freebies or prize draws.
Show reviews fairly on your own website
If you display reviews or a star rating on your site, do not quietly drop the critical ones or present old reviews as current. Misleading presentation is banned too.
Check any review service you use
Avoid any agency or tool that writes reviews, posts them for you, or offers review swaps. If it promises a set number of five-star reviews, walk away.
Ask every genuine customer the same way
A consistent ask to every customer, with nothing offered and no filtering, is the simplest way to grow reviews that stay within the law and Google’s rules.
Growing reviews the lawful way
None of this makes reviews harder to earn. It just means the reviews have to come from real customers. The businesses that do best under the new rules are the ones that ask every customer, every day, in person, while the experience is fresh. That produces a steady flow of genuine reviews, with the specific detail that persuades readers, and nothing for a regulator or Google to question.
An EvoMaxTap stand supports exactly that. It sits on your counter and opens your Google review page when a customer taps their phone. It does not filter customers, write anything, or offer any reward. The customer decides whether to review and what to say. The front-desk script guide gives your team the words.
Make the honest ask the easy one
Programmed to your Google review link before it ships. One payment, no subscription, free UK delivery, with our thirty-day money-back guarantee and five-year hardware guarantee.
Get Your StandCommon questions
Are fake reviews illegal in the UK?
Yes. Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has listed fake reviews among the commercial practices that are automatically unfair and banned in all circumstances. It is illegal to write a fake review, or to commission someone else to write or post one.
What counts as a fake review under the DMCC Act?
A review that claims to be based on a real experience of a product or service when it is not. That covers reviews written by owners or staff posing as customers, reviews bought from third parties, and negative reviews written about a competitor. Fake reviews can be positive or negative.
Is it illegal to offer customers an incentive for a review?
Under the Act, incentivised reviews are banned when the incentive is concealed. Disclosed incentives are not banned by the law itself. Google’s own policy is stricter: it prohibits offering incentives for Google reviews at all, so a discount for a Google review breaks Google’s rules even if you disclose it.
What are the penalties for fake reviews in the UK?
The Competition and Markets Authority can now enforce consumer law directly and impose fines of up to 10% of a business’s global annual turnover. Businesses can also face enforcement orders and, on Google, restrictions and public warnings on their Business Profile.
Does the law apply to small businesses?
Yes. The banned practices apply to any trader dealing with consumers, whatever its size. A single-site café, salon or garage is covered in the same way as a national chain.
Can my staff leave reviews for the business?
They should not. A review from an employee presented as a customer review is not based on a genuine customer experience. Google also treats staff reviews as a conflict of interest and removes them.
Can I ask customers for reviews?
Yes. Asking genuine customers to review their experience is lawful and allowed by Google, as long as you offer nothing in return on Google, ask everyone rather than only happy customers, and let them write whatever they want.
Where can I read the official guidance?
The CMA published its fake reviews guidance, CMA208, on 4 April 2025. It is available on GOV.UK. This guide is general information, not legal advice. If you are unsure about a specific practice, speak to a solicitor.
Competition and Markets Authority, Fake reviews: guidance on the prohibition under paragraph 13 of Schedule 20 to the DMCC Act (CMA208), 4 April 2025. This guide is general information, not legal advice.