National law firm Mills & Reeve has revealed new data which finds companies are still not compliant with legislation around fake reviews.
Fake reviews were made a specific offence under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) and provisions came into force in April 2025. In a bid to protect consumers, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said companies should have published policies on their websites prohibiting fake reviews.
However, 12 months since the law came in, not one out of 100 websites analysed was 100 compliant with the new rules.
Mills & Reeve analysed 100 consumer-facing businesses that have customer reviews on their websites to evaluate how many have clear policies published stating how they approach and tackle fake reviews.
Only two-thirds (67) had published a policy on reviews, with household name brands noted as not having one in place. The most common area for non-compliance is that reviews appear to be selected in some way
Around three-fifths of the websites analysed included prohibiting writing, submitting or arranging a fake consumer review and less than half set out the business’s approach to incentivised reviews.
Only two in five set out their approach to consumer review information, and 90 of the sites do comply by ensuring ratings collected are aggregates to produce average scores.
More than half of the sites analysed ensured reviews are submitted directly to the website and not drawn from third-party sites.
Commenting on the research, Mills & Reeve consumer lawyer, Katrina Anderson, said: “This law is relevant to any businesses publishing consumer reviews on the company website or any other platform, and anyone offering commission or incentivising others to provide reviews. A wide range of commercial practices relating to reviews were banned last April. Despite being 12 months since the legislation came in, businesses still face potential fines – and the stakes are high.
“The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have the power to directly issue fines of up to 10 of global annual turnover, or £300,000, whichever is the greater, for noncompliance with the new law, without the need to go through the courts. We’ve conducted analysis of brand websites looking at the compliance gap that still exists.
“The good news is the road to compliance can be straightforward and there are practical steps to take. Businesses first need to assess the compliance gaps under the new law, and the risk CMA enforcement poses to a business. We’ve supported brands in undertaking a risk assessment and recommending changes to the way that they handle consumer reviews to mitigate those risks. From there, we can draft reviews policies and run training for organisations on how to implement policies in practice.”
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