Google Partners With UK Regulator to Tackle Fake Reviews
Google will take tougher measures against British businesses that use fake reviews on its review platform to increase star ratings. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Friday that Google has agreed to improve its process for detecting and removing fake reviews, and will take action against businesses and users who post fake reviews.
Under the new agreement, Google will take several measures against businesses found to be using false reviews, including suspending their ability to add new reviews. If a business repeatedly engages in suspicious review activity, Google will delete all of its existing reviews for at least six months.
In addition, Google will prominently mark "warning tips" on the profile pages of businesses that use false reviews to help consumers better identify potentially misleading reviews. For individual users who repeatedly post false or misleading reviews on UK business pages, Google will ban them from posting reviews and delete their review history, regardless of where they are located.
Over the next three years, Google will need to report its implementation status to the CMA regularty to ensure compliance with the agreement's terms.
“The improvements we have secured from Google ensure that robust processes are in place so people can feel confident about reviews and make the best choice,” CMA chief executive Sarah Caddell said in a statement. “This is fair to businesses and consumers alike and we encourage the industry to follow its lead.”
We noted that Google had made similar adjustments to the review feature in its map service last year, emphasizing that user-contributed content "should reflect the real experience of a place or business." However, these adjustments apply globally, and the review improvements for all platforms currently appear to apply only to the UK.
The review policy adjustment stems from the CMA's investigation into Google and Amazon in 2021. The CMA suspected that the two companies had failed to combat fake reviews on their platforms effectively and may have violated consumer protection laws. The CMA said that the investigation into Amazon is still ongoing and will announce the latest progress "in due course."
