BUSINESS NEWS COMMENT
How to comply with the ban on fake reviews Farina Azam and Samirah Haujee of Fox Williams explain the change in the law
The consumer aspects of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), which came into force in April and gave the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) new enforcement powers, includes a ban on submitting, commissioning or publishing fake reviews or concealed incentivised reviews – whether incentivised by money, commission, discounts, vouchers, loans, freebies, free stays or invitations to events. Travel businesses are still free
to incentivise reviews but must tell customers a review has been incentivised, and the review must reflect the reviewer’s genuine experience. Businesses are also required not to publish information derived from reviews (ratings, summaries, review counts or rankings) which is false or misleading, or displayed in a misleading way. They must take reasonable and
proportionate steps to prevent and remove from publication ‘banned reviews’ and false or misleading review information. Publishing reviews in a
misleading way includes: Q Failing to publish, or removing from publication, negative reviews while publishing
positive ones; Q Giving greater prominence to positive consumer reviews over
negative ones; and Q Omitting information relevant to the circumstances in which a review has been written.
h Farina Azam
travelweekly.co.uk
CMA guidance A CMA Fake Reviews Guidance note (CMA208) provides further clarity. To avoid falling foul of the new rules, travel companies are advised to
take the following steps: Q Only encourage submission of reviews that reflect genuine experience of a travel service. Companies should not interfere with the ability or willingness of reviewers to leave negative reviews, such as by: stopping and starting review invitations; encouraging only those satisfied to leave reviews; persuading consumers to submit a complaint rather than leave a review; dissuading consumers from leaving a review even if a problem has been resolved; treating a negative review as a complaint and not publishing it; or offering dispute resolution contingent
on not leaving a negative review. Q Refrain from cherry-picking positive reviews: take care not to select only favourable reviews or to highlight positive reviews when these do not reflect the experience
reported by reviewers overall. Q Publish a clear policy that prohibits fake reviews and sets out an approach to incentivised reviews and review information. It should make clear how to submit reviews, who can submit a review, the basis for decisions on publishing and
removing reviews, and how ratings work.
Q Detect banned reviews
and prevent these being published. Detection measures could include: requiring reviewers to provide identifying information or allowing reviews only when possible to verify a reviewer is a genuine customer; keeping records of the review submission history and allowing users to see a reviewer’s public review history; using automated software to spot patterns that may indicate fake reviews (such as reviews under different names from the same IP address, or spikes in highly positive or negative reviews); and having a system to report suspected fake reviews or
false or misleading review information. Q Where a company is not able to determine that content is unlawful, it should investigate reviews or false or misleading review information, considering in advance what sort of evidence may be required to establish the facts and how long reviewers have to provide information. The CMA has said it is important to ensure no unreasonable delays to publication of genuine reviews and genuine negative reviews are not removed. If temporary measures are applied, such as withholding reviews or marking them as pending or suspicious, this should be clearly communicated to
consumers. Q Take reasonable and proportionate steps: these could include imposing sanctions where appropriate by banning user
accounts or suspending or revoking
reviewer privileges. Q Update star ratings, review counts and rankings where reviews have been
identified and removed as fake. Q Conduct regular risk assessments of the prevention and removal process, including the risk that consumers encounter banned reviews or false or
misleading review information. Q If using content from a third-party reviews site, carefully assess the third party’s policies for monitoring and tackling banned reviews. But a company will be responsible for taking its own steps to prevent and remove fake reviews on its own site.
Travel companies need to balance the need to screen suspicious activity with not preventing genuine, lawful reviews from display. Note that removing a negative review which was genuinely created may mislead consumers as much as publishing a fake positive review. The CMA has allowed a ‘grace period’
after feedback that the provisions require changes to systems and compliance programmes and said it will focus until July 6 on helping businesses to comply rather than sanctioning non-compliance.
Q Farina Azam is a partner and Samirah Haujee an associate at Fox Williams. This is the second of two articles on the DMCC Act’s impact on travel – the first was published on May 8.
Samirah Haujee 29 MAY 2025 47
PICTURE: Alexander Caminada
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