Review law, the FTC rule and other platforms: questions and answers

Reporting a review to Trustpilot because it breaks Trustpilot's published rules is legal, and it is what the flagging tool is for. The FTC's rule targets other conduct: fake reviews, incentives tied to sentiment, and suppressing reviews with groundless legal threats, physical threats, intimidation or knowingly false accusations. Source: 16 CFR Part 465. This guide is general information and not legal advice.

Section 465.7 covers two things. First, using an unfounded or groundless legal threat, a physical threat, intimidation, or a knowingly false public accusation to prevent a review or have it removed. Second, presenting the reviews on your own site as most or all reviews when you are hiding some because of their rating or negative sentiment. Source: 16 CFR Part 465.

The FTC can seek civil penalties against knowing violators. The maximum is $53,088 per violation. That figure was set for 2025 and remains in effect for 2026. Source: FTC civil penalty amounts.

Yes. The FTC's guidance says the rule's prohibitions can apply to businesses and to those who work for them, and it names reputation management companies. Source: FTC questions and answers.

The FTC's guidance says the rule does not stop you from contacting customers about their issues or asking satisfied customers to update a review. Trustpilot's own rules are stricter: its policy treats asking a customer to edit or remove a review after you resolved their issue as incentive misuse. On Trustpilot, fix the issue, reply in public and leave the choice to the customer. Sources: FTC questions and answers and Action We Take.

The FTC's announcement does not name the specific laws behind each charge, so we do not say the rule was the basis. What it describes, fake reviews and suppression of negative Trustpilot reviews, is the same kind of conduct the rule names. The case file is on the FTC's NextMed page. Source: FTC announcement.

Asking a platform to remove a review that breaks its rules is lawful, and the FTC's guidance says its rule does not stop that. Threats, intimidation, paying reviewers and gag clauses are not. Our guide on whether review removal is legal sorts each method.

The FTC's review rule, because the agency's first Trustpilot-related case was against a GLP-1 telehealth brand. HIPAA is second, because a careless public reply can disclose that someone is a patient.

No. These pages describe published rules and link to them. We are not a law firm. For a decision about your own case, speak to a lawyer.

Not in itself. A business may ask a platform to remove a review that breaks the platform's rules, and the platform decides. What US law bans is the method: threats, intimidation, knowingly false accusations, payments tied to removal, and contract terms that forbid reviews. Sources: 16 CFR Part 465 and the Consumer Review Fairness Act guidance.

You cannot pay Trustpilot, because it does not sell removal. You cannot pay the reviewer, because Trustpilot bans incentives for editing or deleting and the FTC treated that conduct as review suppression in the NextMed case. You can pay a service to prepare and send legitimate flags. Trustpilot still decides each one.

On Trustpilot a company cannot delete reviews at all. On its own website, the FTC's rule bans hiding reviews because they are negative while presenting the rest as all the reviews. It allows removal for reasons that apply to every review, such as personal information or abuse. Source: 16 CFR 465.7.

On Trustpilot, no. Its guidelines ban any incentive for writing, editing or deleting a review, and that includes refunds offered on that condition. The FTC described the same conduct in its NextMed complaint. Refund a customer because they are owed a refund, and leave the review to them. Source: Guidelines for Businesses.

A US federal law, in force since 2017, that protects people's ability to share honest opinions about a business. It voids terms in standard contracts that ban reviews, fine customers for them or take ownership of them. Source: FTC guidance.

The Act does not remove anything. It limits what your contract can say. It does leave you free to take down, from your own site, content that is clearly false or misleading, defamatory, abusive or unrelated to your products. On Trustpilot, removal is Trustpilot's decision under its own guidelines.

It applies to your contract with your customer, wherever they post. A term in your checkout terms that bans negative Trustpilot reviews is void, and offering it is unlawful.

The Act keeps that right. It says nothing in it affects a claim for defamation, libel or slander. Whether you have a claim depends on state law. See can you sue over a bad review.

No. The statute excludes employment contracts and agreements with independent contractors from its definition of a form contract. Source: 15 U.S.C. § 45b.

A violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive practices, which can mean civil penalties and a federal court order. State attorneys general can also bring cases. Source: FTC guidance.

You can sue over a false statement of fact that harmed your reputation. You cannot win a claim over an opinion, however harsh. 'Worst service ever' is opinion. 'They charged my card after I cancelled', if false and provably so, is a statement of fact. Source: Wex on defamation.

Usually not in the US. Section 230 says a platform is not treated as the publisher or speaker of content its users provide. A claim normally has to be against the person who wrote the review. Source: 47 U.S.C. § 230.

The same rules apply, with two extra problems. Proving the statement false can require the patient's records, and a provider cannot disclose those in public. And the dispute itself draws attention to the review. Speak to a lawyer before anything is sent.

A letter with real legal grounds is lawful. A letter that threatens a claim you do not have is what the FTC's rule calls an unfounded or groundless legal threat. Using one to get a review removed is a violation. Source: 16 CFR 465.7.

It can. Defamation is a sub-reason under 'harmful or illegal'. Trustpilot describes it as content that harms a reputation and leads to significant financial loss, and it will not act on opinions. It decides each case. Source: flagging reasons.

Only through legal process, such as a subpoena issued in a lawsuit, and courts weigh the writer's right to speak anonymously. That is work for a defamation lawyer. Trustpilot's Request information tool asks the reviewer for details of their experience, which is a different thing.

No. Remove One Star works on Trustpilot and Google reviews only. Glassdoor publishes its own guidelines and its own appeal route on its own site, and that is where the answer lives. We have not written a Glassdoor guide, because we would be summarising rules we have not verified.

No. We do not work on Ripoff Report, and we do not describe its rules here. It publishes its own terms and its own routes on its own site. The general point on this page still holds: the site decides, and no outside firm can order a post down.

Trustpilot and Google. Our Trustpilot review removal service and our Google work follow the same method. We read the review against the platform's published rule, report only the ones that break a named rule, and show you proof.

Paying for a deletion is its own problem. The FTC described a telehealth brand offering gift cards for review changes and making refunds depend on removal in its NextMed case. Threats and intimidation used to get a review removed are covered by the FTC's rule.

The shape is the same and the detail is not. Every site asks you to report a review against a published rule, and every site decides on its own. The grounds, the form, the wait and the appeal route differ, so read the rules of the site you are actually on.

Because people ask, and because the honest answer is short. Telling you where to go on Yelp or Facebook costs us nothing and saves you a call. Our paid work is on Trustpilot and Google, and the prices are public.

No. There is no delete button for a business. You report the review and Yelp's moderators rule on it. Yelp states the limit itself: "reporting it doesn't guarantee it will be removed". The writer can delete their own review at any time, and you cannot make them.

The same way it works if you do it yourself. Yelp review removal has one route: a report from the business account, on one of Yelp's three grounds, and a ruling by Yelp's moderators. A paid service can gather the evidence and write the report. It cannot delete the review or skip the queue. Source: How do I report a review?

Yelp says it emails the registered address "when the content has been evaluated by our moderators, which may take several days." That is the only timing Yelp publishes. There is no queue position, no status page and no promised turnaround. Source: How do I report a review?

Yelp says it "doesn't take sides in factual disputes". For a defamatory review, Yelp asks for "a final order from a court of competent jurisdiction". A letter from a lawyer is not that. Source: Will Yelp remove a false or defamatory review?

No. Yelp's rule is blunt: "Don't ask anyone to review your business, be it customers, mailing list subscribers, friends, family, etc." It also says that asking may hurt your rating. Google and Trustpilot both allow asking, so do not copy a Yelp habit onto them, or the reverse.

No. We work on Trustpilot and Google reviews only, and we do not offer a Yelp removal service. This page is here because people ask. Our paid work is our Google review removal service and the Trustpilot side of the same method.

Yelp's recommendation software runs separately from its moderators. A review the moderators keep can still be moved out of the recommended list, and a review they keep can stay recommended. The two decisions are not the same decision. Source: Yelp's defamation help page

No. A Page owner has no per-review delete. You can report a Recommendation that breaks the Community Standards, or turn Recommendations off for the whole Page. Meta says turning them off "will disable Recommendations and remove the rating and reviews from your Page." Source: Turn Recommendations on or off

On Facebook, almost nothing. Meta states it plainly: "Recommendations that only include a star rating can't be reported". There are no words to judge, so there is no report form. The only lever that reaches it is turning Recommendations off, which takes the good ones too.

Meta does not say. It publishes no evaluation timeframe, no appeal route and no way to track the status of a report. That is a gap in the documentation, not a secret we can fill in for you. Treat any vendor's promised Facebook timeline as invented.

It can. Meta says: "We do not verify that users purchased the product or used the service they are reviewing." A rating needs Recommendations on and at least 5 reviews. Source: How Page review count is determined

It is a real option and it has a real cost. Off means no bad reviews, no good reviews and no rating on the Page at all. If your Facebook Page is a service desk more than a shopfront, that trade can make sense. If buyers check it first, it usually does not.

No. We work on Trustpilot and Google reviews only, and we do not offer a Facebook removal service. This page exists because the question comes up. Our paid work is our Trustpilot review removal service and the Google side of the same method.