4.2.4. User reviews

Many online platforms and also individual traders provide the possibility for consumers to inform other consumers about their experience with different products or traders. Review facilities are often included in online marketplaces, search engines, specialised travel review sites, comparison tools and social networks. Various studies demonstrate the importance of reviews for consumers’ purchasing decisions. It is therefore, important that the traders that give access to consumer reviews take reasonable and proportionate steps to ensure that they reflect the experience of real consumers with the relevant product. The notion of ‘reviews’ should be interpreted broadly, including practices related to ratings. However, a number of unfair practices have been identified in this area. Traders use different techniques to increase the number of positive reviews for their products on platforms or to reduce or downplay the number of negative ones. To boost their products, some traders organise the posting of fake positive reviews by, for example, engaging specialised companies that recruit actual consumers through social networks or other means. These consumers then purchase the products of the respective traders on online platforms and leave five-star ratings in exchange for specific benefits. Or they incentivise consumers to test their products in exchange for posting their reviews (sponsored reviews) without disclosing the fact of sponsorship. Moreover, the incentivised/fake reviews can influence the product’s ranking and hence visibility on the platform if the platform’s search parameters take into account the review score. Such practices distort the consumers’ choices. Although some platforms report taking measures to limit false reviews, the problem appears to grow bigger and has prompted an increasing amount of public enforcement activity. The effect of these misleading practices is exacerbated by the constant supply gap of ordinary reviews, in particular for new products or for newcomers on the market (352). The UCPD applies not only to the commercial practices of online platforms and other traders that make available or provide access to consumer reviews but also to any trader that organise the supply of reviews for the benefit of other traders. As explained in section 2.3 on the definition of commercial practice, a trader’s commercial practices are subject to the UCPD regardless of the fact whether such commercial practices promote their own products or products supplied by other traders. In contrast, the UCPD does not apply to consumers who provide information about their experience with products or services, unless they can be considered as acting ‘in the name of or on behalf of a trader’ (see further section 4.2.6 on influencer marketing). Misleading practices regarding consumer reviews and endorsements may breach Article 7(2) UCPD, which requires traders to identify the commercial intent of the commercial practice if not already apparent from the context. Directive (EU) 2019/2161 strengthened the UCPD by introducing specific provisions in the area of consumer reviews and endorsements. Specifically, Point 23b of Annex I prohibits traders from stating that reviews of a product are submitted by consumers who have actually used or purchased the product without taking reasonable steps to check that they originate from such consumers. Point 23c expressly prohibits submitting or commissioning another legal or natural person to submit false consumer reviews in order to promote products. It also prohibits misrepresenting consumer reviews in order to promote products. Finally, traders giving access to reviews must inform consumers about whether and how they ensure that the published reviews originate from consumers in accordance with Article 7(6). The UCPD applies to business-to-consumer practices directly connected with the promotion, sale or supply of a product to consumers. Therefore, the reference to ‘products’ in these new UCPD provisions on reviews aims to underscore that they do not apply to other kinds of reviews unrelated to the promotion, sale or supply of a product. Accordingly, these provisions apply also to those reviews that, while not addressing products or their features ‘strictu sensu’, have as their main object the qualities and performance of traders when offering or selling those products. Where reviews about the performance of ‘traders’ in that framework are used as a tool to promote their products, those reviews could also be considered material for the consumer in taking the transactional decision regarding the products of that trader. In particular, where the reviews assess the trader on parameters such as quality, reliability or speed of delivery of products, such reviews can aim at or be intertwined with the promotion of the trader’s products. Consequently, the new UCPD provisions can be applied to such reviews. In contrast, reviews that assess the trader’s qualities outside the business-to-consumer context, such as social responsibility, employment conditions, taxation, market leadership, ethical aspects etc. would likely fall outside the scope of the UCPD, including the new provisions on consumer reviews.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.