Publishing customer reviews on a UK website
Take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews and misleading review information. Check sources, publish a moderation policy, investigate suspicious content and keep ratings accurate. Factory feedback can be coordinated by Cambridge China Bridge.
Check every route reviews reach your website
The CMA guidance covers reviews and review information collected elsewhere and republished on your website. Using a review provider does not transfer your responsibility. Map customer submissions, embedded widgets, agency uploads and factory-supplied testimonials, including the ratings and summaries they generate.
Before using factory-supplied reviews, ask which product and version were reviewed, where the originals appeared and what evidence supports the claimed experience. Keep the source and original wording alongside any translation. Our e-commerce sourcing guide covers using customer feedback to improve the product itself.
Separate genuine experience from hidden incentives
A fake review claims to reflect genuine experience but does not. Incentivised reviews must reflect genuine experience and disclose the incentive. Ask whether the reviewer received a free sample, discount or payment. Make that information visible with the review rather than hiding it behind a link.
Use neutral invitations across your customer base. The CMA says not to offer incentives for positive reviews or invite only satisfied customers unless the resulting content is clearly labelled as testimonials. Brief factories and agencies accordingly, and reject offers to supply ready-made customer praise.
Publish a policy and moderate fairly
Publish a policy prohibiting fake reviews and explaining your approach to incentives and review information. Explain how reviews are collected and checked, what qualifies for publication and why content might be excluded. Distinguish a public review from a private complaint, and provide a way to report suspicious content.
Publish genuine, relevant and lawful reviews, including criticism. Apply checks to positive and negative submissions. Do not suppress a genuine negative review merely because you disagree or have resolved the customer's problem. Record the reason for moderation decisions, and let reviewers challenge mistakes.
Check ratings, summaries and product matches
Overall ratings should reflect all genuine reviews without distortion from fake or incentivised content. Published reviews should be relevant to the product and not outdated. Check what feeds your rating, which reviews are excluded and whether the displayed count agrees with the underlying records.
When a factory changes a material, component or specification, check whether older reviews still describe the item now sold. Avoid carrying unrelated product feedback onto a replacement listing. After removing banned content, check affected ratings, summaries and widgets. Treat translations and selected extracts as editing tasks that must preserve the reviewer's meaning.
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Keep a risk assessment and an action record
Assess the risk of banned content appearing on your website and revisit that assessment regularly, especially when changing how reviews are collected or displayed. Reasonable and proportionate measures depend on your circumstances. Maintain processes to detect, investigate and act on suspicious content, then assess whether those processes work.
Assign an owner. Use order matching where available, flag repeated wording or unusual submission patterns, and investigate before deciding. Log evidence, decisions, removals and follow-up checks. Ask your provider to explain its controls and show what action it took. Route safety allegations separately through our imported-product recall guide; moderation should not hold up a safety investigation.
Frequently asked questions
Am I responsible for reviews supplied by a third party?
Yes. Republished reviews and review information are covered. A provider can help monitor them, but you remain responsible for your own prevention and removal steps.
Can I publish reviews from customers given free samples?
An incentive does not automatically prohibit a review. It must reflect genuine experience and clearly disclose the incentive. Check the publication platform's policy too.
Can I remove a bad review after giving a refund?
A refund does not justify suppressing a genuine, relevant and lawful negative review. Handle the complaint separately and apply your moderation policy fairly.
What evidence should I keep of review checks?
Keep your risk assessment, policy versions, source records, investigation notes, reasons for decisions and checks that affected ratings were corrected. Record who owns follow-up work.