Trustpilot review removal and flagging: questions and answers

No. A business cannot delete a review on Trustpilot. It can flag a review for one of five reasons, and Trustpilot decides whether to take it offline. Only the person who wrote a review can delete it for good, through their own account. Source: the journey of reviews.

No. Trustpilot says it will not remove a review because you dislike or disagree with it, or because it criticizes your business. Source: Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

Not for that reason alone. Trustpilot's rules let people review a business after browsing its website, calling, emailing or chatting, even without a purchase. Source: who can write a review.

Not for swearing alone. Trustpilot lists swear words among the things it will not remove a review for. Severe profanity, threats, hate speech and obscene content fall under its harmful or illegal reason. Source: Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

It can. Another person's name, phone number, email address, photo or video counts as personal information. Trustpilot first asks the reviewer to edit the review. It will not act if the information is already public on your profile or website. Source: Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

Yes. Trustpilot moves reviews offline and does not delete them. If the reviewer sends documents or fixes the problem later, the review can be reinstated. Source: what happens after businesses flag reviews.

Yes, but only when a review breaks Trustpilot's guidelines. Trustpilot lists five reasons a business can flag a review: harmful or illegal content, personal information, advertising, not based on a genuine experience, and about a different business. See Trustpilot's list of flagging reasons. A review that is negative but follows the rules stays online.

A business reports a review from its Trustpilot Business account: Manage reviews, Service reviews, Inbox, then the flag icon on the review. You choose one of five reasons and highlight the words that break the rule. A consumer can use the flag icon on any review. Source: how to flag service reviews.

No. Trustpilot says it treats all flagged content the same way whether or not the business uses its paid services. See the fair treatment section of the Guidelines for Businesses. A paid plan gives you tools such as invitations and widgets. It does not give you a way to delete reviews.

You pay per confirmed removal: $475 to $600, by pack size, and nothing up front. Behind each removal is the work: finding the reviews that break the rules, matching each one to the right flagging reason and preparing the evidence. We also pace the flags so they are not treated as misuse, and report each week. Trustpilot decides each removal, so we cannot promise that a given review comes down. You never pay for one that stays up.

Trustpilot does not publish a standard time. It says it looks into each flag as soon as possible and that complicated tickets take time. When Trustpilot asks a reviewer for changes or documents, the reviewer gets 3 days to respond, and there can be several rounds. See what happens after businesses flag reviews.

Only if you flagged it as harmful or illegal. Those reviews are hidden during the assessment. Reviews flagged for any other reason stay online while the flag is assessed. Source: how to flag service reviews.

Trustpilot treats some flagging patterns as misuse. Its examples include flagging only negative reviews, flagging the same review again and again, and flagging in bulk over a short period. It warns the business first. If the pattern continues it can block the flagging tool, place a Consumer Warning on the profile and hide the TrustScore. See the Action We Take policy.

It is a notice at the top of a business profile that says the business misused Trustpilot. While it is active, the TrustScore is hidden, any paid plan ends, and Trustpilot stops sharing the rating with search engines. Trustpilot says a warning usually stays for 6 months. See the Action We Take policy and our guide to the Consumer Warning.

Not by itself. Trustpilot says it will not remove a review just because the reviewer did not buy something, or because you do not recognize them. You must first use the Request information tool to ask the reviewer for details. If the problem is not resolved, you can then flag the review as not based on a genuine experience. See Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

Not as a fake. Trustpilot says that if you invited a customer to review your business, you cannot flag that review for not being based on a genuine experience. You can still flag it for another reason, such as personal information. Source: Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

For one category, yes. Trustpilot says that in general it will not investigate whether a review is based on a genuine experience if the review was posted more than a year ago. It does not expect reviewers to keep their documents forever. Source: Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

Only in narrow cases. Disagreeing with the reviewer's version of events is not a reason. The defamation sub-reason covers false statements of fact that harm a reputation and lead to significant financial loss. Opinions such as 'I did not like their service' are not defamation. Source: Trustpilot's flagging reasons.

No. Trustpilot says it moves reviews offline rather than deleting them. If the reviewer later sends documents or edits the review, Trustpilot can put it back. Offline reviews do not count toward your TrustScore. Sources: what happens after flagging and the journey of reviews.

It depends on how many reviews you have, how recent they are and how new reviews keep arriving. TrustScore is not a simple average. Newer reviews weigh more, and Trustpilot adds 7 neutral 3.5-star reviews to every calculation. See TrustScore explained. We do not forecast a score before the audit shows how many reviews qualify.

Reporting a review that breaks a platform's rules is legal. The FTC's Consumer Review Rule bans other things: fake reviews, paying for reviews with a set sentiment, and suppressing reviews with threats, intimidation or false accusations. See 16 CFR Part 465. A service that uses any of those methods puts your business at risk.

No. Trustpilot's rules ban incentives for writing, editing or removing reviews, and that includes refunds. The FTC also named this practice in its case against the telehealth company NextMed, which it said made refunds depend on customers agreeing to remove negative reviews. Sources: Action We Take and the FTC's NextMed announcement.

Trustpilot's position is strict. Its Action We Take policy lists asking a customer to edit or remove their review after the business resolved their issue as a form of incentive misuse. Its business guidelines say reviewers may update a review if their view changes, but you should never pressure them. Fix the problem, reply in public and leave the choice to the customer. Sources: Action We Take and Guidelines for Businesses.

No. Trustpilot says any business that has claimed its profile can use the flagging tool for free. Source: what happens if businesses misuse the flagging tool.

Yes. Trustpilot's Transparent Flagging feature shows 12 months of flagging activity on your public Company activity page. It includes how often you flagged, the share of invalid flags, and the star ratings of the reviews you flagged. Source: Transparent Flagging.

Yes. Google has its own content policies, its own report tool and a one-time appeal, and we work inside them. The same packs cover both platforms at the same price. See Google review removal.

No. Fake reviews break Trustpilot's guidelines and the FTC's Consumer Review Rule. We do not write, buy or arrange reviews of any kind. Sources: Action We Take and 16 CFR Part 465.

No. Requests to a reviewer go through Trustpilot's own Request information tool inside your business account, which is the step Trustpilot requires before some flags. We do not email, call or message reviewers outside Trustpilot.

For the free audit, only your Trustpilot profile URL. For the work itself, we need access to the flagging tool in your Trustpilot Business account. We also need any records that show whether a reviewer was a customer, such as order IDs or support tickets. Do not send us patient health information.

Then we tell you so, and there is nothing to buy. Many 1-star reviews are real complaints about shipping, billing or support. Those reviews need a reply and a fix. Our guide to what Trustpilot will and will not remove explains the difference.

Start by reading it against the platform's rules. On Trustpilot a review can come down only if it breaks one of five flagging reasons, and the business flags it from its own account. If it is a real complaint, it stays. Reply in general terms, fix the cause and invite every customer, so newer reviews carry more weight.

Claim the profile, reply to negative reviews in general terms, and invite every customer in neutral words. Flag only the reviews that break a rule, a few at a time, across star ratings. Keep a log of each flag and its outcome. Trustpilot's Guidelines for Businesses cover all four.

Trustpilot does not publish one. Its Trust Report 2025 says businesses flagged 601 thousand reviews in 2024, but it does not say how many were taken offline. Any percentage you see quoted comes from a vendor or a video, not from Trustpilot. Source: Trust Report 2025.

There is no published ranking. In practice, the strongest cases are the ones where the breach is visible in the review's own text: a phone number, a promo code, a description of another company. Cases that depend on who the reviewer is, such as genuine experience flags, are harder, and Trustpilot made them harder in 2024.

Open your profile's Company activity page, which the public can see too. It shows 12 months of flagging: how often you flagged, the percentage of invalid cases, the star ratings of flagged reviews, and how many were removed or kept online. Source: Transparent Flagging.

No. Trustpilot lists flagging the same review over and over as misuse. If a review breaks a different rule, you can flag it for that reason once the first case is closed. Sources: Action We Take and how to flag service reviews.

When we asked AI assistants about removal costs in September 2026, one repeated a do-it-yourself success rate of 27% to 62%. The figure traced back to a YouTube video. We could not find it in any Trustpilot publication.

Continued misuse of the platform after earlier notices. Trustpilot's examples include fake reviews, biased or incentivized invitations, and misuse of the flagging tool, such as flagging only negative reviews, flagging the same review repeatedly or flagging in bulk. For serious misuse Trustpilot says it may skip the earlier steps. Source: Action We Take.

Trustpilot says a Consumer Warning stays for a fixed time, usually 6 months, and that this can vary with the type of misuse. It reviews the warning from time to time and does not remove it until the misuse has stopped and a reasonable amount of time has passed. Source: Action We Take.

It is hidden for as long as the warning is active. Trustpilot also ends any paid subscription, reduces the account to minimum features, and stops sharing the business's rating and review data with search and answer engines. Source: Action We Take.

No. A warning means Trustpilot found misuse. An alert is information for consumers and does not necessarily mean misuse. Trustpilot uses alerts for significant media attention, high-risk industries and regulatory scrutiny. Source: Consumer Warnings and Alerts.

No. Only Trustpilot removes it, after the misuse has stopped and time has passed. You can appeal a decision you believe is wrong by following the steps in the email Trustpilot sent you. A service that says it can lift a warning is claiming something Trustpilot's policy does not allow for.

Trustpilot reported 9 thousand Consumer Warnings active in 2024, up 24% on the year before. It also sent 19 thousand warnings and 5 thousand cease-and-desist letters that year. Source: Trust Report 2025.

Yes. Trustpilot says the account drops to minimum features, and that replying to reviews and flagging reviews that breach the guidelines stay open. Invitations, the widgets and Trustpilot's brand assets do not. Source: Action We Take.

With what Trustpilot will and will not remove. It sets out both lists in Trustpilot's own words. Then read the flagging misuse rules before anyone on your team flags anything.

Trustpilot spreads them over its Guidelines for Businesses, Guidelines for Reviewers and Action We Take policy. Our rule-by-rule section has one page per rule, each quoting the source.

The service is described on the main Trustpilot review removal page. This hub is the reference library behind it.

Trustpilot does not publish a number. Its policy describes patterns: bulk flagging over a short period, flagging that targets only negative reviews, repeat flags, and flags on reviews that do not breach the guidelines. A small number of well-founded flags per week, spread across star ratings where the same breach appears, avoids all four.

The business. Flags are sent from the business's own Trustpilot account, and warnings, restrictions and a Consumer Warning all apply to that profile.

Trustpilot's term for a flagged review that did not go against its guidelines for the reason the business selected. The percentage of invalid cases is shown on the public Company activity page. Source: Transparent Flagging.

Yes. Trustpilot lets you appeal a Content Integrity decision once, within 6 months, using the link in its email. Decisions you can appeal include a warning, a cease-and-desist letter and a Consumer Warning. Source: appealing a decision.

No. Trustpilot says consumers decide which businesses are reviewed, and that once a business has been reviewed it will not remove the profile page. Source: why Trustpilot does not delete business profile pages.

Your profile goes back to 'Unclaimed'. You can no longer reply to reviews or flag them. Customers can still search for your business, read old reviews and write new ones. You can claim the profile again later. Source: delete your Trustpilot Business account.

No. Trustpilot says it does not remove reviews when a business is taken over by a new owner, and reviews belong to the people who wrote them. Ask Trustpilot's support team how a domain or name change is handled for your profile.

No. In our September 2026 sample of hair loss, ED, TRT and HRT brands, the two unclaimed profiles had 1-star shares of 69% and 80%. Claimed profiles with more than 100 reviews ran from 1% to 19%. An unclaimed profile cannot reply, flag or invite.

Yes, for its own reasons. Trustpilot says certain types of businesses are not allowed on the platform, and it reported removing 4 thousand 'bad-fit' businesses in 2024. That is Trustpilot's decision about the business, not a service a business can request. Sources: Action We Take and Trust Report 2025.

You can delete your Trustpilot Business account, and a paid plan ends under the terms of your contract with Trustpilot. Neither removes the profile page. Once a business has been reviewed, Trustpilot keeps the page, and it goes back to unclaimed. Sources: deleting a Business account and why profiles are not deleted.

Trustpilot's article does not say that it does. It says the page stays online, old reviews stay readable and customers can still write new ones. The score is built from the reviews on the page, so it carries on without you. Sources: deleting a Business account and TrustScore explained.

There are six causes. Automated detection took it offline. Someone flagged it and Trustpilot upheld the flag. The author did not respond to a request for information or an edit. The author deleted it. The author replaced it with a newer review. Or the review was moved to a different profile. Source: the journey of reviews.

If several reviews went at once, automated detection is the usual cause. Trustpilot looks for unusual patterns, such as many reviews from one place or device, and takes those reviews offline. The author gets an email and can challenge it. Source: automated detection technology.

Yes. Trustpilot moves reviews offline and keeps them, so it can reinstate a review if the author sends documents, edits the text or wins a challenge. Source: what happens after flagging.

The challenge belongs to the author. Trustpilot emails the reviewer with an explanation and instructions. A business can tell the customer that the email exists. It must not offer anything in exchange, because Trustpilot bans incentives for writing or editing reviews.

Only by flagging it for one of Trustpilot's five reasons and having Trustpilot agree. A business cannot delete a review. See the two lists Trustpilot works from.

No. Trustpilot says reviews taken offline do not count toward the star rating or TrustScore. Source: the journey of reviews.

Log in to your Trustpilot account, open your reviews and delete it there. Trustpilot says the author can edit or delete a review at any time, and that only the author can delete it for good. Deleting your user account also deletes all your reviews. Source: Guidelines for Reviewers.

Every review is checked by automated technology before it is posted. Trustpilot says a review goes live within two hours if no issue is found. If the technology flags it, the review stays offline and you get an email with the reason and a way to challenge it. Source: the journey of reviews.

Trustpilot does not publish a number. It says it looks into each flag as soon as it can, and that complicated tickets take longer. The only published clock is the reviewer's 3 days to answer a request. Sources: what happens after flagging and how to flag service reviews.

Only if you flagged it as harmful or illegal. Those are hidden during the assessment. A review flagged for any other reason stays on your profile, and keeps counting toward your TrustScore, until a decision is made. Source: how to flag service reviews.

No. A review is flagged for one reason at a time, and a flag cannot be edited once it is sent. Flagging the same review over and over is listed as misuse. Sources: what happens after flagging and Action We Take.

Trustpilot says it does not delete reviews. It moves them offline, so a decision can be reversed later if the reviewer sends documents or fixes the problem. Source: what happens after businesses flag reviews.

Six months from the decision. The same decision can only be appealed once, so an appeal should carry facts that were not in the first report. Source: appealing a decision.

Because it sells. No published Trustpilot figure supports it. A firm can promise its own pace, its reporting and its evidence. It cannot promise the platform's decision or the date of it.