How to comply with the ban on fake reviews

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:

• Failing to publish, or removing from publication, negative reviews while publishing positive ones;
• Giving greater prominence to positive consumer reviews over negative ones; and
• Omitting information relevant to the circumstances in which a review has been written.