In this article5 sections · 3 min
What does the law say about AI-written reviews?
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission announced a final rule in August 2024 banning fake reviews and testimonials. Its announcement names reviews that misrepresent that they are by someone who does not exist, including AI-generated ones, or by someone who did not have actual experience with the business. The rule also covers buying such reviews and some forms of suppressing honest ones. Other countries have similar rules; our post on whether fake reviews are illegal covers the UK, Canada and Australia.
What does Google’s policy say?
Google’s policy for content on Maps prohibits fake engagement: content that does not reflect a genuine experience, posted to manipulate a place’s rating. It does not matter whether a person or a program wrote the words. What matters is whether the review reflects a real experience at that business.
What are the signs of an AI-written fake review?
None of these proves anything on its own. Plenty of real customers write tidy sentences. Look for several signs together, and above all for a reviewer you cannot match to any customer.
- Generic praise or blame that could fit any business in your trade, with no detail only a customer would know.
- Several reviews arriving close together with the same structure: opening line, three points, closing recommendation.
- Phrasing that does not match how your customers talk, or terms you never use for your own services.
- Profiles with no photo, few reviews, and reviews of businesses scattered across distant cities.
- Details that are confidently wrong: a service you do not offer, staff who do not exist, a location you never had.
The last sign is the strongest, because it can be checked against your own records. Our longer list, signs a review breaks the rules, maps each sign to the policy category it falls under.
What should I do about them?
- Check your records for the reviewer and the visit described. Note what you find.
- Report the review through the platform, choosing the category that fits, such as fake engagement or conflict of interest.
- If a batch arrived at once, treat it as a pattern and report the reviews together; see review bombing: what to do.
- Reply calmly and briefly if the review stays up while it is assessed. Do not accuse the writer of using AI; say you have no record of the visit.
Can I use AI to write replies to reviews?
Using a tool to help draft a reply to a real review is not the same as faking a review, and nothing in the FTC announcement or Google’s review policy forbids it. Read every reply before posting it. A reply that sounds generic or gets the customer’s complaint wrong does more harm than no reply.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission announces final rule banning fake reviews and testimonialsUS Federal Trade Commission
- Prohibited and restricted content (Maps user-generated content policy)Google
The policies and laws above are the platforms’ and regulators’ own pages. This article explains them in plain words; it is not legal advice.
About this guide
Written by the Erase Trax review team: specialists in review policy, working with businesses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Each guide is written against the platforms’ own published policies. Last reviewed .
- We never need your login
- We never buy, write or incentivize reviews
- The platform makes the final decision
