Last Updated April 29, 2025
Reviews published using our technology must be authentic and presented in a way that accurately demonstrates their value to a consumer’s potential online purchase decision.
PowerReviews requires that all of our clients comply with our PowerReviews Authenticity Policy and PowerReviews Moderation Policy.
PowerReviews’ technology supports our clients in monitoring for fake reviews and publishing reviews that are transparent and not misleading.
Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Act 2024 (“DMCC”)
The content set out below is intended to provide general guidance on the provisions of the DMCC; it is not, and must not be treated as, a substitute for taking professional legal advice on the implications of the DMCC for any person affected by it.
The DMCC came in force on 6 April 2025 to regulate online reviews.
On 4 April 2025, the Competition & Markets Authority (“CMA”) published guidance entitled “Fake Reviews” (“Guidance”).
The Guidance explains the key concepts: consumer reviews; fake reviews; concealed incentivised reviews; and consumer review information.
The DMCC prohibits the following practices relating to online reviews:
- Submitting or commissioning fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews (“banned reviews”).
- Publishing consumer reviews, or consumer review information, in a misleading way.
- Offering to procure banned reviews and information for traders.
- Offering services that facilitate the submission, commissioning or publication of banned reviews and information.
Preventing and Removal of banned reviews and false or misleading consumer review information
PowerReviews takes the authenticity of review content extremely seriously. As consumers ourselves, who rely on reviews and other user-generated content to inform purchase decisions, the belief that shoppers should be able to trust the reviews they read online is a fundamental principle of PowerReviews’ business philosophy.
Traders have a positive legal obligation to take such reasonable and proportionate steps as are necessary to prevent and remove from publication banned reviews and false or misleading consumer review information.
All publishers need to: (i) have a clear policy on the prevention and removal of banned reviews and false or misleading consumer review information; and (ii) assess the risks of such material appearing on their media and take such further proactive steps as are reasonable and proportionate to address the issues identified.
PowerReviews’ services include several tools and safeguards to assist our clients in this process.
Publishers must: (i) have published policies which prohibit fake reviews and set out the publishers’ approach to incentivised reviews and consumer review information; (ii) take proactive steps to identify banned reviews and avoid the presentation of false or misleading consumer review information (before and after publication); (iii) have a process for conducting investigations in response to suspicious reviews they have identified or been notified of; and (iv) take steps to prevent consumers from being misled as a result of a banned review or false or misleading consumer review information, where the publisher determines that identified content constitutes it.
Monitoring for and Mitigate Fraudulent and Fake Reviews
To monitor for and mitigate fraudulent and fake reviews, the PowerReviews technology supports IP address monitoring, user-device reputation assessment, and duplicate review identification.
IP Address Monitoring
We recommend – as part of our best practice implementation – that any client who uses our services, allow PowerReviews to view any user’s IP address who submits a review. When a client sends a user’s IP address as part of the review, PowerReviews will be able to monitor IP address activity to flag and/or block any IPs that have any history of providing fraudulent or illegitimate reviews or other user-generated content across any company using our platform.
Mass advertising, trolling, and attempts at automated content submission are all sources of inauthentic content. PowerReviews also offers tools that help flag and block reviews deemed inauthentic by leveraging a JavaScript-based device reputation technology.
Duplicate Review Check
PowerReviews has a best-in-class moderation process to verify the relevancy, appropriateness, and authenticity of each review for our clients. As a part of this verification process, duplicate reviews are also identified and unpublished from consumer view. For more information on the PowerReviews moderation process see our Moderation Guidelines.
Tracking Review Source
In addition to monitoring reviews for fraudulent behaviour, PowerReviews also provides our clients with the tools to track the source of any specific review, without identifying the specific consumer. These tracking methods ensure that our clients can present reviews in a transparent manner to their customers.
With proper configuration, PowerReviews clients are able to accurately identify reviews that have been submitted by:
- a consumer that has purchased the product
- a consumer that has verified their email address
- a staff member of the client’s organization
- a consumer that was incentivized to write the review (e.g. giveaway or contest)
- a consumer that wrote a review after receiving a free product sample
Providing Consumer Transparency within the Review Display
To ensure that reviews are not presented in a misleading way, PowerReviews provides badges and disclosures statements alongside each review displayed using our review display technology.
Review Badging
PowerReviews employs the following badges on reviews displayed on our clients’ websites based on the source of that review.
Verified Buyer
A Verified Buyer (example of this badge below) is an individual who has purchased the reviewed product directly from the company displaying the review. The review was submitted through a specific process that tracks purchase history. This designation is intended to clearly identify consumers who are submitting reviews of products that they own.
Verified Reviews
A Verified Reviewer (example of this badge below) is an individual who has confirmed their email address through our verification process. This designation is intended to clearly identify consumers who are submitting reviews using a valid email address.
Staff Reviewer
A Staff Reviewer (example of this badge below) is an individual for whom PowerReviews has matched their email address domain to the domain of the B2C business selling the product. This badge is used to make sure that consumers know if/when the person posting a review has a potential affiliation to the B2C business selling the product/service.
Review Disclosures
Our technology also tags reviews with specific disclosure statements in the following scenarios:
Sampled Product Review
A review that was written by a consumer after receiving a free product sample will display the disclosure in the example below:
Incentivized Reviews
A review that was written by a consumer who was incentivized to write a review. Examples of such incentives include an entry into a contest or sweepstakes, see the examples below:
