Fake reviews or comments: how to get them removed
Made-up reviews about your business, or false comments about you? Review platforms remove reviews that are fake or break their rules. An honest negative review, however, is usually protected: that’s the line to know.
What to do first
- Spot what makes the review break the rules: someone who was never a customer, a competitor or former employee, hate speech, personal information, a wave of reviews.
- Report each review with the button provided (Google Maps, Trustpilot…), choosing the exact reason.
- Reply publicly, calmly and with facts: other readers see your answer.
- If the review contains specific false accusations, it may be defamation: check the time limits in your country, they can be short.
By platform
What to avoid
- Be wary of agencies promising "guaranteed" removal of negative reviews.
- Don’t post fake positive reviews in response: it’s a deceptive practice and can be penalised.
Your remedies by country
- DSA: reporting illegal content to a platform (EU) In the European Union, any service that hosts content (social network, forum, sharing site…) must let you report illegal content online, examine your notice carefully and tell you its decision. It works for any content that breaks the law: intimate images, fake profiles, defamation, personal data…
- When a domain registrar ignores your abuse report: ICANN A .com, .net, .org or other generic-extension site is registered through a “registrar” (a domain name registration company). Its contract with ICANN requires it to receive abuse reports, investigate them and respond appropriately. If it does not, you can complain to ICANN.
- Fake profile or online impersonation: what to do in France Creating a fake profile in your name, or using your personal data to disturb your peace or harm your reputation, is a criminal offence in France (identity theft). You can have the platform remove the profile and file a police complaint.
- Online defamation in France: you only have 3 months to act In France, publicly accusing someone of a specific fact that harms their honour or reputation is defamation, including in an online review, comment or post. You can ask the platform to remove it, but legal action must be started within 3 months of the first online publication.
- GDPR: asking for your personal data to be erased In the European Union you can ask a website, company or service to erase data about you (photo, name, address, post…) in the cases set out in the GDPR. It must reply within one month, and it is free.
- Right to be forgotten: asking Google or Bing to delist a link In the European Union you can ask a search engine to stop showing, when people search your name, a link to a page about you. This is called “delisting”: the page stays on the original site, but becomes much harder to find.
If it doesn’t work
An official form can go unanswered or be wrongly refused. That’s not the end: there are other doors, heavier but effective — the company hosting the site, the company managing its domain name, the laws of your country, the data protection authority. That’s exactly what we do for you, with your agreement.
- Reporting to the platform
- A written request to the site owner
- The domain name registrar
- The hosting company
- Search engines
- The authority or the courts
Common questions
Can an honest negative review be removed?
Rarely. Customers have the right to give their opinion, even a harsh one. You can, however, challenge a review that is fake, abusive, or not from a real customer.
What if the fake reviews come from a competitor?
Gather the clues (dates, accounts created the same day, identical style) and add them to your report. For an organised campaign, legal action can be considered with a lawyer.
This information helps you use your rights. It doesn’t replace advice from a lawyer.