CMA Opens Five Fake Review Investigations — What the DMCCA Means for All Businesses
What happened
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened five consumer law investigations into businesses suspected of fake and misleading review practices. The cases, announced on 27 March 2026, target Autotrader, Feefo, Just Eat, Dignity, and Pasta Evangelists.
Each investigation focuses on a different part of the review manipulation chain:
- Autotrader and Feefo — whether negative 1-star reviews moderated by Feefo were never published and weren't counted toward Autotrader's star ratings
- Just Eat — whether its ratings system has inflated certain restaurants' and grocers' star ratings, giving consumers a misleading view of quality
- Dignity — whether the funeral services company asked staff to write positive reviews about its crematoria
- Pasta Evangelists — whether it offered undisclosed discounts in exchange for 5-star reviews on delivery apps
These are the third set of investigations launched under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), which has been in force since 6 April 2025. The CMA can now act directly — without going to court — and impose fines of up to 10% of annual global turnover.
What this means for tradespeople
You might think these investigations only matter for big corporations. They don't. The DMCCA applies to every business that displays or collects reviews — including sole traders.
Under the law, several review practices are now automatically treated as unfair and unlawful. These "banned practices" include publishing fake reviews, offering undisclosed incentives for reviews, hiding or suppressing negative reviews, and presenting misleading star ratings.
Crucially, you can't outsource responsibility. If you use a third-party platform to moderate or collect your reviews, you're still individually responsible for ensuring banned content doesn't appear. That's exactly the dynamic the CMA is probing in the Autotrader/Feefo case.
For tradespeople, the practical risk is straightforward: if you've ever asked a mate to leave a Google review, offered a discount for a 5-star rating, or deleted negative feedback, those practices now carry real legal exposure. Law firms following the cases describe them as a shift toward direct enforcement — the CMA's view is that businesses have had long enough to bring their practices into compliance.
What to do about it
The safest approach is simple: collect reviews from genuine customers after real jobs. Don't incentivise specific star ratings, don't ask friends or family, and don't suppress negative feedback.
TapReview is a £9/month tool that helps UK tradespeople get more Google reviews by sending automated review requests via WhatsApp and SMS after every job — no incentives needed, just a timely nudge to genuine customers.
Source: CMA Press Release — Gov.uk