Google to Put Warnings on U.K. Businesses Using Fake Online Reviews — Update
By Edith Hancock
Alphabet-owned Google has offered to start punishing U.K. businesses that boost their star ratings with fake reviews and the people that post them, ending the U.K. competition watchdog's investigation into online reviews.
The search giant will put warning alerts on the profiles of businesses that use fake reviews to boost their star ratings, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said Friday. Those warnings will be visible on businesses' Google profiles and those flouting the rules will have new reviews disabled. Repeat offenders will have their reviews deleted for at least six months, the CMA said.
It also offered to take "rigorous steps to detect and remove fake reviews" by investigating them, deleting fake reviews and banning their posters from leaving reviews in future, the authority said. It will also call out businesses that use fake reviews to improve their own status online.
Google will report to the CMA over a three-year period on its progress, the watchdog said.
The CMA started investigating Google and Amazon in 2021 over concerns the companies' oversight of online reviews breached consumer protection law. The regulator is still probing Amazon, it said, and will update that case in due course.
"The changes we've secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices," Sarah Cardell, the CMA's chief executive, said, adding that the company's concessions will help to level the playing field for companies jostling for customers online.
The settlement comes just as the CMA has gained new enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, a new law governing competition in the digital economy that explicitly bans posting or commissioning a fake review and forces companies with outsized market power to take action to remove them or prevent them from being published. Companies can get fined up to 10% of their annual worldwide turnover for flouting the rules.
Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com