Five companies now under investigation as the CMA steps up its work to tackle fake reviews and misleading star ratings - and protect people online.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched 5 new consumer law investigations as part of a crackdown on fake and misleading reviews - opening cases across sectors including funerals, food delivery, and car sales.
CMA concerns
Online reviews play a significant role in people's decisions, influencing billions of pounds of UK spending every year. Research from Which? found that 89% of people use reviews when researching a product or service - making it essential that the information they rely on is genuine and transparent.
The CMA is investigating 5 businesses to determine whether they have infringed consumer law:
- Autotrader and Feefo - Treatment of negative reviews: Whether a number of 1‑star reviews - which were moderated by Feefo - were not published on Autotrader's platform, and were not counted towards star ratings, therefore denying consumers a fully rounded picture of other customers' experiences.
- Dignity - Misleading reviews: Whether Dignity asked staff to write positive reviews about the company's crematoria services - giving people a potentially inaccurate picture of genuine customers' feedback.
- Just Eat - Star ratings: Whether Just Eat's ratings system has inflated certain restaurants' and grocers' star ratings - giving consumers a potentially misleading picture of quality when choosing where to order.
- Pasta Evangelists - Discounts for reviews: Whether customers were offered discounts on future orders in exchange for leaving 5-star reviews on delivery apps, without this being disclosed - meaning people may not have known how reliable or representative those ratings were.
While the CMA is investigating these 5 businesses, it has not reached any conclusions about whether consumer law has been broken.
The CMA's work is looking at the key stages in the online reviews ecosystem - from how reviews are obtained, to the way they are moderated and displayed, to the star ratings people so often rely on. By taking cases across each of these stages, the CMA is investigating multiple practices that can shape what people see when they search, shop or book online.
In April 2025, several practices relating to online reviews became 'banned practices' under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act), meaning they are automatically deemed unfair and illegal. This includes obtaining and posting fake reviews, and paid-for reviews that are not clearly marked as incentivised. It also covers how reviews are handled - for example, if negative reviews are hidden, or if star ratings present an inaccurate picture.
The investigations bring the total number of businesses under review using the CMA's new consumer powers to 14. These powers enable the CMA to decide whether consumer laws have been broken, without having to go through the courts.
Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, said:
Fake reviews strike at the heart of consumer trust - with many of us worrying about misleading content when looking at reviews online.
With household budgets under pressure, people need to know they're getting genuine information - not reviews or star-ratings that have been manipulated to push them towards the wrong choice.
We've given businesses the time to get things right. Now we're deploying our new powers to tackle some of the most harmful practices head on.
Top Tips for avoiding fake reviews
Not all fake or misleading reviews are easy to spot at first glance. The CMA's Top Tips are designed to help you spot some of the warning signs about online reviews generally, before making a decision.
- Read the reviews: It sounds obvious, but too often shoppers get taken in by 5-star ratings without actually reading what people have to say about a product or service. You'll be surprised at how many reviews sound dubious, overly vague or even totally unrelated to the item they're supposedly endorsing.
- Be alert to AI generated reviews: Advances in artificial intelligence mean fake reviews can now sound fluent, polished and highly convincing. If a review feels a bit too slick, reads like it's been perfectly crafted, or uses very similar wording to others, it may not reflect a real customer's experience. Trust your instincts - if something feels off, look for more detail elsewhere before deciding.
- Take a look at the other ratings: It's unlikely that a 3 or 4-star review is fake, so they can be particularly useful. Someone might knock off a star because delivery was a day late or the packaging wasn't perfect, but still be very happy overall. If their minor gripe doesn't matter to you, you can be more confident the rest of their review is genuine.
- Check out multiple sites: We all have our go-to platform when it comes to reading reviews, but it's always worth seeing what people are saying elsewhere. Looking across several sites helps you spot patterns - and ensures you're getting a consistent picture.
New programme of work on fake reviews
This new programme marks the next phase of the CMA's work to curb fake and misleading reviews, and improve trust and transparency online. It builds on the significant work already taken to raise standards - including securing major changes from Google and Amazon to bolster their systems for identifying and removing fake reviews, as well as tough new sanctions for repeat offenders, and easier reporting functions.
To help businesses stay on the right side of the law, the CMA issued detailed guidance on their obligations regarding online reviews last year - along with a short‑hand version designed to help them grasp quickly what compliance looks like.
The CMA also carried out a sweep of over 100 review publishers and issued advisory letters to 54 firms to improve their compliance with the law - 90% made changes in response, and 75% said they better understood the rules.
Next steps
The CMA will continue to engage with the companies under review to get to the bottom of its concerns.
If the CMA finds an infringement of the law, it can require businesses to change their practices and impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
How the investigations unfold will depend on the nature of the evidence. They could result in a finding of unlawful conduct, the imposition of remedies, or case closures.
