Reviews courseModule 2 of 7: Asking for ReviewsLesson 2.3

Never Incentivise or Gate: UK Law and Platform Rules

Don't give anything in return for a review (incentivising), and don't choose who you ask, or where you send them, by how happy they seem (gating). Both break the platforms' rules, and UK law now bans fake reviews and hidden incentives outright.

7% of your review effort7 min readA standing rule

By Morgan King, founder of Reyse Facts checked October 2026 Jump to Your turn

Why it matters

Rewards, prize draws, rating screens and "only ask the happy ones" are all common, and all now risk your reviews, your profile and a regulator's attention.

The evidence

Evidence: Official guidance

The DMCC Act, the CMA's guidance (CMA208) and Google's and Trustpilot's policies. Penalty details from the CMA and law-firm summaries. No enforcement against an estate agent found yet.

Do this first

Check every review request you send, in every system and by every person, for anything offered and for anyone left out.

01What it is

Imagine a class vote for the best teacher, where the teacher hands out sweets to anyone who votes for them and only asks the pupils who already like them. The result wouldn’t tell you what the class really thinks.

Think of it like

A restaurant that only hands comment cards to the tables that smiled. The cards look good and tell you nothing true.

02Why it matters

To the people searching

Incentivised reviews read differently, even when they're genuine, and a profile that looks bought undermines every review on it. In YouGov's 2025 survey of 2,119 British adults, 64% said fake or overly positive reviews would put them off. A few honest negative reviews from a broad base build far more trust than a suspiciously perfect score.

buyers

Rely on reviews to choose an agent, and can be misled by rewards or filters.

tenants

Trust a profile that reflects every tenant, including the ones who had a problem.

sellers

Are trusting you with a very large asset. A filtered picture is the last thing they need.

landlords

Often compare several sources. A suspiciously perfect profile makes them look harder.

To Google, the platforms and AI

Official guidance

This isn't a ranking lever. It's a rule. Google bans incentives, reviews from staff or family, and asking only for positive reviews; since April 2026 it also bans asking staff to collect a set number of reviews or reviews that name them. Trustpilot bans being selective about who you invite, timing invitations so only satisfied customers get them, any incentive (including prize draws), and inviting staff or family. Breaking the rules risks removed reviews, warnings on your profile or suspension. Google also gave the CMA undertakings in January 2025 to act more firmly on fake reviews.

of global turnover: the maximum CMA fine (or £300,000, if higher): 10%of global turnover: the maximum CMA fine (or £300,000, if higher)
UK fake review ban in force: 6 Apr 2025UK fake review ban in force

An agent example

A lettings branch used an automatic "How did we do, 1 to 5?" page after move-in. Fours and fives were sent on to Google; lower scores went to an internal form. A new regional manager spotted it in a process review. The branch removed the filter, sent the same Google link to every tenant and landlord, and kept the internal survey as a separate, optional question.

03Your turn

Check yours, then fix it

Illustration

Review gating: a score screen that sends happy clients to Google and unhappy ones to a private form. It breaks Google's rules and hides negative reviews from the next customer. Send everyone the same link instead. Made-up agency.

1Look at every review request you send, in every system and by every person.
2Does any of them offer anything: a discount, a prize draw, a thank-you gift, a reduced fee?

1Take your last 30 completed sales, lets and moves. Mark who got a request.
2Anyone missing, and why? "He seemed unhappy" is the wrong answer.

Does your link go straight to the review page, or through a rating screen or survey that sends people different ways?

1Ask every team member and every provider, in writing, how they ask for reviews.
2Look for quotas, league tables, scripts, "please mention Sarah", family reviews or bought reviews.

Skim Google's policy and the CMA's short guide, and tick each point against what you do.

Google's review policy CMA fake reviews guidance

Copy this prompt

Here is a review request from an estate agency. Which phrases could be read as an incentive, a pre-screen or pressure on the rating? Do not give legal advice.

ChatGPT Claude

04Keep it up

Set once. Re-check whenever a supplier, tool or staff process changes.

A standing ruleSee it in your schedule →

Go deeperWhat the law actually says

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (Schedule 20, paragraph 13) makes three things unfair in all circumstances: submitting or commissioning a fake review or one that hides it was incentivised; publishing reviews or review information (ratings, counts, summaries) in a misleading way; and publishing reviews without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove banned ones. It's been in force since 6 April 2025.

The CMA's guidance (CMA208, 4 April 2025) adds the detail. "Commissioning" isn't just money: discounts, vouchers and freebies count. Asking customers for reviews in general is fine, as long as you don't decide in advance what they'll say. Incentivised reviews are only lawful if clearly labelled as incentivised, and Google and Trustpilot ban them anyway. Encouraging only satisfied customers to review is cherry-picking. Stopping and starting invitations, or offering to settle a dispute on condition there's no negative review, interferes with negative reviews. And a business that shows reviews on its own website is a publisher, with the same duty to keep banned reviews out.

The Act: Schedule 20 CMA fake reviews guidance

Go deeperPenalties and enforcement

The CMA can now enforce consumer law itself, without going to court, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover or £300,000, whichever is higher. In March 2026 it opened five investigations into review practices: Autotrader and Feefo (whether 1-star reviews were kept off the site and out of star ratings), Dignity (whether staff were asked to write positive reviews), Just Eat (whether ratings were inflated) and Pasta Evangelists (whether customers got undisclosed discounts for 5-star reviews). No findings had been published when we checked. Feefo is a platform some agents use; no wrongdoing has been established.

Paying others doesn't move the risk. In 2016 a firm that wrote over 800 fake reviews for 86 businesses gave undertakings to the CMA, which warned the businesses involved that they could be liable too.

CMA: five businesses under investigation

Go deeperGating in agency life: how it creeps in

A negotiator only emails clients who said thank you on the phone.
A "rate us 1 to 5" screen sends high scores to Google and low scores to a private form.
Clients who complained are quietly skipped.
Requests stop after a bad month and restart after a good one.
A settlement is offered on condition the review comes down.
A prize draw for everyone who reviews. Even if the law may not treat a chance of a prize as commissioning, Google and Trustpilot ban incentives of any kind.

Go deeperTwo estate agency cautionary tales

In 2018 the ASA upheld a complaint against an online agent whose testimonial described an agent's work at a previous firm, implying it was about the new one. In 2019 an online agency agreed to remove claims based on reviews from before a change of ownership. Reviews have to be about the business that shows them, as it is now.

ASA ruling: Alpinum Ltd (2018)