The UK’s competition regulator has launched a fresh crackdown on fake online reviews, opening investigations into five major firms including Autotrader and Just Eat over concerns they may have failed to tackle misleading customer feedback.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which has previously scrutinised Amazon and Google, confirmed that its latest investigation also targets Dignity, Feefo and Pasta Evangelists.
The regulator is examining whether these companies allowed practices that could distort consumer perception. In particular, the CMA is assessing whether one-star reviews moderated by Feefo were excluded from publication on Autotrader, potentially preventing users from seeing a complete and accurate picture.
Separate investigations focus on whether Dignity encouraged staff to submit favourable reviews of its cremation services, while Just Eat is under scrutiny over concerns that its system “inflated certain restaurants’ and grocers’ star ratings”. Pasta Evangelists is also being investigated over whether customers were offered incentives, such as discounts, in exchange for five-star reviews.
Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, warned that fake reviews pose a serious threat to consumer confidence. She said: “Fake reviews strike at the heart of consumer trust, with many of us worrying about misleading content when looking at reviews online.”
She added: “With household budgets under pressure, people need to know they’re getting genuine information – not reviews or star ratings that have been manipulated to push them towards the wrong choice.”
The CMA emphasised that no conclusions have yet been reached regarding potential breaches of UK consumer law. However, the latest action brings the total number of businesses under investigation to 14.
The crackdown follows new powers granted to the CMA under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, which classifies certain practices linked to online reviews as unfair and illegal. The legislation enables the regulator to determine breaches without taking firms to court.
Cardell noted: “We’ve given businesses the time to get things right. Now we’re deploying our new powers to tackle some of the most harmful practices head on.”
If violations are confirmed, the CMA can require companies to amend their practices and impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
Consumer advocacy group Which? highlighted the scale of the issue, noting that 89% of consumers rely on online reviews before making purchasing decisions.
Sue Davies, head of consumer rights policy at Which?, said: “Fake reviews erode trust in the market and can be costly for consumers, honest businesses and the economy as a whole.”
She added: “Investigations are a welcome first step, but enforcement will be key: the regulator must be prepared to get tough, use its powers and issue serious fines if these companies aren’t playing by the rules.”
Autotrader confirmed it is cooperating with the investigation, stating: “We endeavour always to operate as a responsible and compliant business and will cooperate fully with the CMA’s investigation.”
A Just Eat spokesperson said: “We are working closely with the CMA to ensure the reviews and ratings on our platform are clear, transparent and easy to use for all our customers and partners.”
Feefo also defended its processes, saying: “Our platform is engineered to ensure that every review is rooted in genuine consumer intent, backed by a fair, evidence-based process for ensuring the authenticity of feedback for both consumers and dealers.”
The company added: “We remain entirely confident in our compliance frameworks and look forward to contributing to the CMA’s work.”