Under the DMCCA 2024, new legal protections aim to help businesses combat fake, misleading, and manipulated reviews and restore consumer trust.
Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) new rules came into force on 6 April 2025 affecting fake and misleading reviews. Fake and misleading reviews can severely impact a business’ reputation whether used to boost or annihilate the brand which as a result a business can risk losing credibility and trust towards its existing and prospective consumers.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) estimates that £23 billion of UK consumer spending is influenced by online reviews annually. With such significant impact, the new rules aim to enhance consumer confidence and protect businesses from unfair review practices.
What is a fake or misleading review?
A fake consumer review is defined where one strategically crafts a false or deceptive statement with the intention to mislead the evaluation of product or service to either unfairly boost or damage a brand’s reputation.
Misleading reviews may appear genuine but omit key context, are incentivised without disclosure, or are manipulated to misrepresent overall customer sentiment.
Scope of the new DMCCA rules on reviews
The new rules are wide covering the following:
- All products, services, and digital content, including aspects like delivery and after-sales care.
- All forms of reviews, including written text, audio, images, and graphical elements such as star ratings.
At their core, the regulations apply to any content intended to influence consumer decisions.
Banned review practices
1. Undisclosed Incentivised Reviews
It is now illegal to submit or commission a review without revealing that the reviewer was rewarded or incentivised in some way. This aligns with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) requirements in influencer marketing, where disclosures like #AD, #Sponsored, or #PaidPromotion are standard.
Under the DMCCA, the same transparency is required for reviews as it is for product endorsements.
2. Misleading or Manipulated Reviews
These are defined as those which misrepresent consumer sentiment by being selective in the publishing or presentation of reviews including:
- Posting only positive reviews while suppressing or removing negative ones.Increasing visibility to favourable reviews (e.g., placing the favourable reviews on the top of the page while hiding or downplaying the less favourable)
- Failing to disclose relevant context, such as a product review where accompanying images have been edited or enhanced.
3. Obligation to Prevent Fake Reviews
Businesses now have a positive duty to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent the spreading of misleading and fake reviews. While the DMCCA does not define what is ‘reasonable’ the expectation is that businesses must:
- Actively monitor reviews,
- Enforce robust policies to identify and address non-compliance.
4. Facilitating Incentivised Reviews
Under the new rule, incentivising reviews is not prohibited outright, but failure to clearly disclose the incentive is. This includes direct payments, discounts, loyalty points, or other benefits given in exchange for reviews.
What should businesses do instead?
Considering these changes, companies must proactively review and update their processes. Key actions include:
- Implementing systems to tag and flag incentivised reviews.
- Ensuring reviews are genuinely matched to the products or services in question.
- Regularly conducting sweeps and spot checks to identify and remove suspicious or false content.
- Reviewing internal policies for social media endorsements and influencer partnerships.
- Establishing clear procedures for customers to report fake or misleading reviews.
- Working with third-party services to detect and manage review manipulation.
Enforcement and penalties
The CMA now has enhanced enforcement powers under the DMCCA. Businesses found violating these new review regulations may face:
- Fines up to £300,000 or 10% of global turnover—whichever is higher
- Criminal sanctions in severe cases
- Consumer redress rights, including refunds or cancellations (pending future legislation)
Our thoughts
While these new rules may challenge how some businesses collect and showcase customer feedback, they mark a significant step forward in protecting both consumers and ethical
brands.
The DMCCA 2025 offers businesses a chance to rebuild trust, safeguard their reputations, and ensure a level playing field in the digital marketplace. For consumers, they promote greater transparency, helping them make more informed purchasing decisions.
Contact us
At Nath Solicitors, we offer expert legal advice on defamation, online reputation management, and media law. If you need guidance on how to navigate legal issues related to online content or require assistance with managing user-generated comments, contact us at 0208 983 8278 or get in touch with the firm online.