The FTC fake reviews rule: what small businesses must know

The FTC fake reviews rule is a federal rule that makes it illegal for a business to buy, invent or quietly plant reviews, to pay only for positive ones, to bully people into taking reviews down, or to buy fake followers. It has been in force since October 21, 2024, and a knowing violation can cost up to $53,088 each time. Here is what it says, in plain words, and what you can still do.

The rule in one paragraph

Its official name is the Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, and it sits in the federal regulations as 16 CFR Part 465. The FTC announced it on August 14, 2024. The FTC's own explanation: a Supreme Court decision, AMG Capital Management v. FTC, had made it hard for the agency to get money back for consumers, and case-by-case action without fines was not enough to stop fake reviews. Under the rule, courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations, and the maximum per violation was raised to $53,088 in January 2025. In December 2025 FTC staff sent warning letters to 10 companies about possible violations of the rule. The FTC did not name them.

The rule covers businesses. The FTC says plainly that ordinary consumers cannot be liable under it for what they write in a review.

The six things it bans

1. Fake or false reviews. A review by someone who does not exist, by someone who never used your product or service, or one that misstates what their experience was. The FTC's announcement names AI-generated fake reviews as an example. Writing them, buying them and selling them are all covered.
2. Paying for a particular opinion. You may not give money, a discount or anything else in exchange for a review that has to be positive, or negative, whether you say so outright or only hint at it.
3. Hidden insider reviews. Reviews by owners, managers or employees, and reviews you ask your relatives or staff to write, need a clear disclosure of the connection.
4. An "independent" review site you control. If you run a website that rates products in your own category, you cannot present it as independent.
5. Review suppression. No groundless legal threats, physical threats, intimidation or public false accusations to stop a review or get one removed. And if you show reviews on your own website, you cannot hide the bad ones while implying that what is left is all or most of them.
6. Fake social media influence. Buying or selling followers, views or likes that you knew or should have known were fake, to make a business look bigger than it is.

Real situations: allowed or not

Say you run a small bakery. Here is how the rule treats things owners actually do:

Note the incentive row. The FTC rule is only the federal floor. Review sites set their own rules for their own pages, so read those before you offer any reward.

Who is on the hook

You, even if someone else did it. The rule reaches a business that buys or spreads reviews it knew or should have known were false. "The agency handled it" is not a defense if the signs were there: a pile of five-star reviews in one week from people you have never seen, say.

The agency or seller too. The FTC's questions and answers say marketing companies and agents are not immune. They can be liable for writing, creating or selling fake reviews.

Your staff and family, through you. The insider part of the rule is aimed at officers and managers. If you ask employees or relatives to write reviews, tell them to disclose the connection, and act if you see that they did not. The FTC also says it does not expect a manager to scour every review for undisclosed ones from employees who were never asked.

Things the rule does not stop

The rule is narrower than many owners fear. You can still:

• ask every customer for a review, in person, by text or on a receipt
• reply to reviews, including the unfair ones, politely and in public
• remove reviews from your own website that are abusive, contain someone's personal information, are clearly false, or are about something else entirely
• share real testimonials from real customers in your posts

If a review on Google is fake or abusive, the right move is to report it to the platform, not to pressure the reviewer. We go through that process in Can you remove a Google review? What really works.

A ten-minute check of your own marketing

Go through this list once, and again whenever someone new starts helping with your marketing:

• Read every review request you send: text, e-mail, sign by the register. Does it ask for an honest review, or for five stars?
• Does any discount, prize draw or loyalty point depend on what the review says? Remove that condition.
• Have you asked staff, friends or family to post reviews? Ask them to add a line such as "I work here" or "the owner is my brother".
• Ask your agency or freelancer, in writing, how they get reviews and followers. "We have a network of reviewers" is the wrong answer.
• Look at your follower count. If any of it came from a "followers package", stop buying.
• Check your contracts and invoices for anything that threatens customers who leave bad reviews.

This is general information, not legal advice. The rule and the FTC's own explanations are linked below. For a question about your business, the FTC's business guidance pages or a lawyer who handles advertising law are the places to check.

Reviews done the honest way

Buying reviews is the shortcut the rule closes. The legal route is slower: ask every customer, answer every review, and keep your profile accurate. Our Reviews & Google Profile service, $39 a month, covers the second and third parts. We reply to every new Google and Facebook review in your name, keep your hours, services and photos current on your Google profile, and flag any review that needs you personally. We never write, buy or post reviews. It is one of our monthly add-on services.