Buying Google reviews: what you really risk, and what works instead

Under various names, the offer is always the same: five-star reviews posted on your profile by accounts that have never set foot in your business. It comes in several forms:

• Batches of reviews sold by specialised sites, posted from accounts created or rented for the purpose.
• Paid reviews: individuals paid a few euros per review, recruited through online groups.
• Review swaps between businesses: I rate yours, you rate mine.

For Google, all of these are fake reviews. Reviews from your family or your staff are a conflict of interest, which is just as forbidden.

Google's rules on fake content forbid reviews that don't reflect a real experience, and any incentive offered in exchange for a review. Google detects them with automated systems, backed by human checks and user reports.

When a profile is involved, Google can:

• remove the reviews in question;
• suspend new reviews for a set period;
• display a warning to visitors of the profile, saying fake reviews were removed.

That last one costs the most: a customer who sees the warning stops believing any of the reviews, genuine ones included.

Across the European Union, the so-called Omnibus directive lists submitting or commissioning fake consumer reviews among the commercial practices banned in all circumstances. There is no need to prove customers were misled: the fake review is enough. It applies in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and every other member state.

In France, the penalty is that of misleading commercial practices: up to two years in prison and a €300,000 fine, which can be raised to 10% of average annual turnover. Both the buyer and the seller of the reviews can be prosecuted.

In the United Kingdom, fake reviews have been explicitly banned since April 2025, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover. Switzerland, outside the EU, also forbids misleading commercial practices in its unfair competition law.

Customers, competitors and Google all see the same signs:

• Many reviews in a short time, after months of quiet.
• Accounts with no history, or rating businesses all over the country on the same day.
• Vague, interchangeable texts that could describe any business.
• A language or region that doesn't match your customers.

A competitor who notices them can report them to Google, or to the consumer authorities.

Most satisfied customers don't leave a review because nobody asks, or because it takes too long. That's where to act:

• Ask every customer, while they're on site and happy. The methods are covered in our guide to getting more Google reviews.
• Remove the steps: a direct link to the form, a QR code, an NFC card. Our Google review link and QR code generator is free.
• Reply to every review, negative and positive alike: future customers read your replies too.

Ten recent genuine reviews are worth more than a hundred fake ones: they last, and nobody can take them away from you.

Report the suspicious reviews to Google from their profile, choosing the right reason: the steps are the same as for a review on your own profile, see our guide to removing a Google review. Misleading commercial practices can also be reported to the consumer authorities of your country.