The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is about to start enforcing new rules designed to prevent the publication of fake or misleading consumer reviews. Have you considered how you'd respond if the CMA asks what your business has done to comply?
Fake and misleading reviews: a quick reminder
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 imposes new requirements on businesses to prevent the publication of fake reviews or misleading review information. It also prohibits the commissioning of fake reviews and the publication of "concealed incentivised reviews" (where the consumer was e.g. given the product for free in return for providing a review - but the incentivisation has not been made clear). These are explained in more detail in our briefing from April 2025, but here are some key practical questions to ask:
Key questions to ask
- Hosting reviews: Do we allow consumers to post reviews on our B2C website? If so, what steps have we taken to comply with the obligation to take "reasonable and proportionate steps" to prevent fake or misleading reviews being posted?
- Using reviews in publicity: Does our B2C website and/or our promotional material feature selected examples of 5 star reviews or positive customer feedback? If so, are we satisfied this feedback is genuine? And does any of our publicity risk presenting a misleading picture of customer feedback on the business overall? For example, is some of it derived from reviews which are now several years old and does it suggest a high overall rating when in fact, the evidence is far more mixed?
- Review platforms: Do we use a review platform such as Google, Trustpilot, Feefo or Checkatrade? If so, have we considered – and ideally documented - how we think that platform meets the DMCC Act requirements? Have we also checked that our own use of e.g. aggregated review ratings from that platform is not misleading?
- Policy: Do we need a policy on fake and misleading reviews? The CMA's guidance recommends that all publishers of consumer reviews should have a policy setting out their approach.
- Incentives: Do we incentivise consumers to provide reviews e.g. by providing products for free in return for an honest review? If so, are we doing enough to ensure that any incentives are disclosed in the review itself?
- Staff awareness: Could some of our staff be tempted to commission or submit fake reviews e.g. in order to hit internal targets for generating positive feedback? If so, do we need to make them aware that this is now a banned practice?
Why is July 2025 significant?
The new rules on fake and misleading reviews came into force on 6 April 2025, but the CMA stated that it wouldn't start enforcing them before July 2025. In effect, the CMA has allowed businesses a 3 month "grace period" in which to comply.
What enforcement can we expect to see from the CMA?
Since most consumer review activity is online, we expect the CMA to use technology to identify particular areas of concern – in much the same way that the Advertising Standards Authority has been using AI to spot advertising content that appears to breach its codes of practice. This means that the CMA can cast the net quite widely when it comes to identifying businesses that may not have complied with the new rules. The DMCC Act also gives the CMA much stronger consumer law enforcement powers, including the ability to impose fines of up to 10% of annual turnover for breach. If it finds evidence of particularly serious breaches – such as businesses commissioning fake reviews – it is likely to consider launching formal investigations under these new direct enforcement powers (see our earlier briefing for more detail).
What should you do now?
Most B2C businesses are likely to make use of review content in at least some of their promotional material; as such, they are likely to be "publishers" of reviews under the DMCC Act. How you respond will depend on how you use consumer reviews, but our view is that most B2C businesses will need to take at least some steps in order to comply. For example, even a business that doesn't host any reviews itself but relies on a review platform is likely to feature at least some information from those reviews in its publicity, such as aggregate ratings or quotations from reviews hosted on the platform. This is likely to mean that it is regarded as a "publisher" and therefore subject to the requirement to take "reasonable and proportionate steps" to prevent fake or misleading consumer reviews (including information derived from or influenced by consumer reviews, such as aggregated star ratings for a product or service).
The CMA's own guidance recognises that there's no "one-size fits all" approach that will work for all businesses. We can help you take a pragmatic, cost-effective approach that gives you appropriate protection against the substantially increased regulatory risk in this area.
Rich Offord, Partner
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
