A review is read as testimony from a customer who has no interest in the sale. That is the whole of its value, and it is why the law protects it. Buying ratings to climb a ranking is something most platforms prohibit, in China as elsewhere. In Europe it is also a matter of consumer law, enforced by public authorities, and an exporter who sells through its own site is directly answerable for what it displays.
What the rules target
The framework is the one on unfair commercial practices. It treats as misleading the display of reviews that are not genuine. If you say that reviews come from customers who really bought or used the product, you must take reasonable and proportionate steps to check it. Posting or commissioning false reviews, or distorting real ones, is on the list of practices banned in all circumstances. And a business that gives access to reviews has to say how it handles them: whether it checks that they come from real buyers, and how. Enforcement belongs to each member state, with its own authority and its own sanctions, which differ in size and in speed.
- Writing reviews yourself, or having staff, relatives, an agency or a freelancer write them.
- Paying for reviews or ratings, directly or through an intermediary, whatever the amount.
- Giving a refund, a gift or a discount in exchange for a positive review, or making it depend on the rating.
- Showing only the good ones. Holding back or deleting negative reviews from real buyers because they are negative.
- Showing reviews of another product as if they concerned this one, or reviews from your home-market listing as if European customers had written them.
- Claiming « verified buyers » with no process behind the claim.
What is allowed
You may ask your customers for reviews. You may ask all of them, with the same message and a neutral question. You may moderate: remove abusive content, spam, off-topic remarks and anything unlawful, if you apply written criteria to every review alike. You may reply, publicly, to any review. If you offer something for taking the time to write one, it has to be disclosed and cannot depend on what the review says or how many stars it gives. Some states and most platforms are stricter than the general rule on this point, so where you are unsure, offer nothing. If you use a third-party review service, its rules apply, but you remain responsible for what you display.
| Situation | Generally acceptable | Risky or sanctioned |
|---|---|---|
| Asking for reviews | Ask every buyer, with the same wording. | Ask only the buyers you know are satisfied. |
| Incentive | If any: disclosed, and the same whatever the rating. | A reward for a positive review, or a penalty for a negative one. |
| Moderation | Remove abuse, spam and unlawful content, under published criteria. | Remove a review because it is negative. |
| Reply to criticism | A public reply with facts and what was fixed. | Pressure on the reviewer to withdraw it, or threats. |
| Display | Everything published, dated, with its origin stated. | Selected, undated, or imported from another product or market. |
Reviews when you sell to businesses
A business buyer seldom reads stars. They look for references: a company they can name, a person they could call, a case described with the customer's permission. The rules reach you in two ways. If some of your customers are consumers or sole traders, for instance through an online shop, the consumer rules apply to the reviews shown on that shop. And between businesses, misleading advertising rules also exist, so an invented testimonial or a reference you cannot support is a problem even where no consumer is involved. The safest rule is the same in both cases: show only what a real customer said, with their agreement.
How to get reviews honestly
- Deliver first. Reviews follow an experience, and the best lever is a product that arrives as described, with a clear route when something goes wrong.
- Send a request after delivery to every buyer, with identical wording and a neutral question such as « how was your order? ».
- Point to a place where the review will be public. Do not offer a private channel to the unhappy and a public one to the happy.
- Publish what arrives, negative reviews included, subject to written moderation criteria that you apply to all alike.
- Answer every negative review in public, with facts and with what you changed afterwards.
- Say on the site how reviews are collected and checked, in one short paragraph.
- Keep records: the request, its date, and each moderation decision with its reason.
What to do with a bad review
Reply calmly, once, and offer to settle the problem through after-sales. If the customer then chooses to update their review, that is their decision; do not make a refund or a replacement conditional on it. If a review is false, written by someone who never bought, or unlawful, report it to the platform or the review service with evidence, and follow its procedure. Never post a false review in return, and do not publish the reviewer's personal details: the name and the content of a review are personal data. The aim of the reply is not to win the exchange. It is to show the next reader how you behave when something goes wrong, which is the thing they came to find out.
Write a one-page review policy before the first request goes out: who is asked, when, with what wording, what is moderated and why, who answers, and what is never done. Publish the short version on the site. The policy is what you show an authority, a marketplace or a customer the day someone challenges a review, and it is also what keeps the person handling the reviews from improvising under pressure.
Where to read it yourself
Official pages, opened and checked on 15 October 2026. Where a rule changes, these are the addresses that change with it — this article does not.