The short answer
The FTC rule on the use of consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, took effect on October 21, 2024. It bans businesses from creating, buying, selling or spreading fake reviews, from buying positive or negative reviews, and from certain review suppression tactics. Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations. The FTC says ordinary consumers cannot be liable under the rule for what they write in reviews.
The rule in brief
The Federal Trade Commission announced its Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials on August 14, 2024, after a unanimous vote. It is published as 16 CFR Part 465 and went into effect on October 21, 2024. The FTC enforces it, and the rule allows courts to impose civil penalties for knowing violations.
The rule sets out a specific list of review practices the FTC treats as unfair or deceptive, so the conduct and the penalties are written down in one place. The FTC has since sent warning letters to companies about possible violations.
What it covers
- Fake or false reviews and testimonials, including reviews by people who do not exist, AI generated reviews, and reviews from people with no real experience of the business.
- Buying reviews: offering payment or other incentives for reviews that express a particular sentiment, positive or negative.
- Insider reviews: reviews by officers, managers, employees or agents that hide their connection to the business.
- Company controlled review websites that claim to be independent.
- Review suppression: groundless legal threats, physical threats, intimidation or certain false accusations used to stop or remove negative reviews.
- Fake social media indicators: buying or selling fake followers or views to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose.
Two details matter for owners. The fake review ban covers reviews from people with no real experience of the business, not only invented people. And the ban on buying reviews runs in both directions: paying for praise and paying for criticism.
See which of your reviews break a rule.
The check reads every low review on your listing and labels it. Free, and nothing is filed until you pick.
Who it applies to
The rule is aimed at businesses and the firms around them. The FTC's own questions and answers page says advertising agencies, review brokers and reputation management companies are not immune, and that an individual in the business of selling or creating fake reviews can be liable. The same page says ordinary consumers cannot be liable under the rule for what they say or do not say in reviews. It also says the rule does not give private individuals a right to sue under it.
A business can also be responsible for insider reviews it asked for, such as reviews from employees or relatives, when the connection is not clearly disclosed. On the other side, the FTC page says a business that only hosts consumer reviews, without procuring fake ones, is not made liable for them by the rule. The FTC notes that its questions and answers are staff guidance, and the full text of the rule is published in the Federal Register.
Where Google's rules come in
Whether a review comes off your Google listing depends on Google's content policies. Those policies ban fake engagement, content not based on a real experience, reviews posted for an incentive, conflict of interest, repetitive content, off topic content and harassment. A review can break Google's policies whatever its legal status, and the path to removal is a report to Google under the policy it breaks.
Google's rules also apply to your side. A business that buys or seeds reviews can face restrictions on its profile, such as new reviews blocked for a set period or a warning shown that fake reviews were removed.
In practice there are two separate tracks. The FTC deals with the people and companies who make, buy and sell fake reviews. Google decides what stays on its own platform. A report to one does not file a report with the other.
Reporting a fake review seller to the FTC
The FTC takes reports of fraud, scams and bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If someone sold or offered you fake reviews, or a business is buying them, that is where the FTC asks people to report it. Include the seller's name or website, how they contacted you, what they offered, the price if they named one, and any payment you made. Keep the messages and links, the same evidence the guide on documenting a review attack sets out. The FTC uses these reports to spot patterns and build cases rather than to resolve each complaint one by one.
Is review bombing covered?
The rule does not use the words review bombing. It is written around specific conduct, such as buying reviews of a particular sentiment or producing reviews from people with no real experience of the business, so whether a given wave falls under it depends on who is behind it and what they did. The FTC says ordinary consumers are not liable under the rule for what they write. Google's policy against unusual volumes or patterns of reviews applies to every wave, whoever is behind it.
Getting the fake reviews off your listing
The free review check reads every low review on your listing and labels each one against Google's policies: Spam, Off topic, Advertising, Conflict of interest, Abusive language, or No rule broken. You tick the ones to file, each is filed once with Google under the policy it breaks, and you are billed only for a review Google removes. The check works the same whether the reviews came from a competitor, a crowd or a seller, because it labels what the wording of each review breaks.