The Italian Competition Authority imposed a fine of $4.6 million on Trustpilot in March 2026 for misleading customers about its services and for not verifying the authenticity of reviews. In 2024, Trustpilot reported the removal of 4.5 million fraudulent reviews, with automated AI fraud detection responsible for catching 90% of them. Reviews marked as verified are associated with legitimate transactions, which may have occurred through a Trustpilot invitation, merchant upload, or evidence provided during a dispute.
Our processes saw improvements in 2022 and 2023, and the newly implemented system affected all prior businesses, resulting in a notable increase in removals. We issue public Consumer Alerts even when misuse is not confirmed, as we believe users deserve information that aids in their decision-making. When misuse of the platform is detected, we alert businesses through educational messages and warnings, particularly in cases of suspected fake reviews or incorrect use of our reporting features. This translates to leveraging artificial intelligence alongside human involvement in decision-making, while ensuring that humans play a vital role in managing escalations, appeals, and quality assurance. In 2024, we reorganized team structures to enhance our ability to identify guideline breaches and eliminate fake reviews effectively. Furthermore, we have implemented a ‘Community Reporting’ feature that allows anyone to report suspicious activities or content to us.
We’ve played a pivotal role in the development of the Coalition rating.solutions for Trusted Reviews, a cross-industry body committed to safeguarding and promoting trustworthy reviews worldwide. We made this change after receiving feedback that some businesses were abusing our reporting tools to suppress negative feedback. In 2024, we introduced new measures to ensure more genuine reviews remain online by reducing the burden on consumers to provide evidence that their review is real. We are an open platform, which means everyone can leave a review of any business, assuming it’s based on a genuine experience and it meets our guidelines.
If… Trustpilot does not justify the expense
The remaining fake reviews were identified after being flagged by users or caught by our teams via manual investigations, and we continuously improve as we grow. The benefit is that consumers have the freedom to share their experiences with businesses at any time, resulting in a broad and holistic range of feedback across any point in a consumer’s journey. Our approach gives businesses and consumers access to valuable insights they might not get elsewhere, but we recognise this comes with an important responsibility to safeguard the platform.
Although this an established business that many people trust, its reviews don’t reflect that (through no fault of Trustpilot’s). It will tell you if the company encourages reviews, if it responds to negative feedback, and if it pays to access additional features on the platform. From advancing our AI-powered detection systems to strengthening platform integrity, and shaping global standards for review transparency, we are actively building a more trustworthy digital future.
Identifying Fraudulent Reviews on Trustpilot
And when your ambitions start to grow, we have a plan that’s right for you. Prices shown are per domain, so we need to know each domain you want included in your plan to give you an accurate quote. Enhance your plan with add-on modules and integrations where applicable, and select a monthly or annual billing cycle. Determine the best plan to help you achieve your business goals. Choose the right plan to help you reach more customers, earn their trust and keep them loyal for life. If no improvement is seen we will place a warning on their profile page for all consumers to see.
Leave A Reply Cancel reply
Meanwhile, the EU has been reviewing existing rules for reviews as part of the Fitness Check of EU consumer law on digital fairness. It aims to enhance transparency and trust in online reviews, ensuring consumers can make informed decisions based on authentic feedback. We are supportive of the rule and look forward to continuing to work with the FTC in this space. We engaged the FTC throughout the rulemaking process, and are pleased that they responded positively and constructively to much of our input, citing Trustpilot multiple times in the publication of the final rule.
It serves as the primary platform for trustworthy and sincere reviews, providing independent validation that boosts consumer confidence. As of 2026, AI tools for building websites generally require three… We confirmed that its reviews can be trusted, albeit with certain warning signs to be mindful of. When potential customers observe that others have successfully purchased products from you, their confidence in making a similar purchase tends to increase. Transparency is valued by customers, who are often more lenient toward negative reviews if you acknowledge a negative experience and strive to rectify it.
We help businesses build trust, grow, and improve by listening to and engaging with their customers. We call this Trustpilot everywhere, ensuring people can rely on trusted information whenever and wherever they make decisions. Trustpilot is the world’s largest independent customer feedback platform, and trust has always been at the heart of what we do. Your reviews stay on your Trustpilot profile page, making sure that your company’s feedback history stays available to you. But rest assured, your access will continue uninterrupted. Once you’ve reached this limit, you’ll have to wait until the next month to send more — unless you choose to upgrade to a paid plan.
Our Trust Report sets out the steps we are taking to ensure the businesses people engage with, and the reviews they read on Trustpilot, are authentic, useful, and worthy of their trust. We are living through a period of rapid change, where artificial intelligence is transforming how people access, interpret, and act on information. Trustpilot supported this process, contributing our experience and reflections on the effectiveness of existing rules. Following the passage of the law, we have been supporting the work of the Competition & Markets Authority as it develops guidance to accompany the application of the law, which came into force in April 2025. It aims to enhance trust in reviews, and prevents companies from using bogus consumer reviews to promote their products and services.
Any consumer can write a review of any business, whether or not the business uses Trustpilot’s paid tools. Trustpilot Group plc is a Danish-founded consumer reviews company that runs one of the largest review platforms in the world. I’ll cover how the system actually works, where it fails, and how to read any Trustpilot profile like a pro. If you want the details behind each of those points, keep reading. The platform has real problems with its paid-tier business model, fake-review slippage, and dispute handling. Without Trustpilot, we’d have no way to convince people to trust us with their health.
By 2024, Trustpilot removed 4.5 million fake reviews, with 90% of the fake reviews automatically taken down by AI tools. Additionally, 469,000 companies reported fake reviews, and around 90,000 fake reviews were removed by consumers. In February 2020, the BBC reported that Trustpilot had removed at least 2.2 million fake reviews. In order to do this, Google aggregated data from various European sources, including third-party platforms like Trustpilot. In 2014, Draper Esprit (then named DFJ Esprit) invested $25 million in Trustpilot, along with support from the existing investors. In the same year, the company was named Danish Startup of the Year at Next Web’s European Startup Awards.
Recent Comments