Trustpilot, the global online consumer review platform, has won a landmark legal case in the UK against a series of websites that were selling hundreds of fake reviews.
The High Court agreed the review sellers – TPR, SMM Service Buy and SMM 420, were unlawfully inducing businesses who use the platform to breach its terms of use, passing off fake reviews as authorised by Trustpilot and infringing its trademarks.
Following the ruling, Trustpilot is calling on internet service providers and payment providers to take down the websites identified in the legal action.
The ruling comes as the Competition and Markets Authority prepares to enforce a new law banning the practice of buying or procuring fake reviews. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act comes into force in April 2025, which will allow the CMA to take action against businesses who break the rules.
Anoop Joshi, Trustpilot’s chief trust officer, said: “This is a significant moment in the fight against websites that sell fake reviews, and we want to send a clear message that we will not tolerate review seller activity on Trustpilot. We decided to take action now, ahead of the UK law being introduced, because we’re determined to root out and take action against businesses or individuals who could pose a threat to the integrity of our platform. Ensuring businesses and consumers are able to access genuine reviews on Trustpilot is essential to safeguarding the services we provide.”
Over the past two years Trustpilot has successfully brought 10 legal cases against businesses who continually abused the platform’s rules to manipulate others through online reviews. In 2023 Trustpilot removed 3.3 million fake reviews from the platform. The removal rate remains consistent at 6% of the total amount of reviews received year on year.
