Federal Trade Commission New Rule Banning Fake Reviews Takes Effect

FTC bans fake reviews

In August, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a final rule that prohibits fake reviews for businesses and seeks to combat deceptive practices from businesses concerning reviews and testimonials.  This rule became effective on October 21, 2024.

Key Takeaways From This New Rule

The rule cracks down on numerous deceptive practices, such as:

  • Fake reviews: Reviews must be genuine.  You cannot make up, buy, sell, or share false reviews. This also includes AI-generated reviews.
  • Bribes/offers/rewards for good reviews: Businesses can’t offer people incentives such as money, discounts, or other rewards for leaving positive reviews.
  • Bullying or pressure to remove bad reviews: Businesses can’t use legal threats to scare people into taking down legitimate negative reviews.
  • Fake popularity: Buying or selling fake likes, followers, or views on social media is prohibited.


In addition, when someone is leaving a review about a business, if that person has a connection to the business, he/she must say so when writing it.

Now that this rule has taken effect, the FTC can fine businesses that are proven to have knowingly violated any section of the rule.  

To comply with the new rule, businesses may need to:

  • Audit their current method of getting reviews
  • Implement stricter guidelines for employee and influencer disclosures
  • Look at internal processes to see where improvements can be made that may reduce negative feedback
  • Develop a safe strategy for handling negative feedback


Our tool RocketReviews has been helping businesses gather feedback from their customers the right way since 2015.  With RocketReviews, it’s easy to connect with your customers and gain valuable insight into what’s important to them. This will help you market to your brand’s advocates and quickly alert you to issues with unhappy customers so that you can recover their loyalty.  If your business needs a better way to generate feedback and new reviews, schedule a quick demo with me today! 

Picture of Zane Tuck

Zane Tuck

Since 2014, Zane has been working with SEO Rocket's clients. He assists local businesses in accelerating their growth, with his specialties being in Local SEO and customer review consultation. Helping local businesses learn how to ask for, and get, more reviews from customers is his passion.

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