What is the penalty for a fake review?

The penalty regime changed materially in April 2025. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, the Competition and Markets Authority can decide breaches itself and impose fines directly, up to the higher of 10% of a business's global annual turnover or £300,000. Individuals involved can be fined up to £150,000. Before this, the CMA had to take businesses to court, which in practice meant enforcement was slow and rare.

Because fake reviews sit on the blacklist of automatically unfair practices, the CMA does not need to prove the fakes changed anyone's buying decision. The practice itself is the offence. Alongside fines, the CMA can order compensation for affected consumers and require compliance changes it then monitors.

For most small businesses the realistic first-line consequences come from Google rather than the regulator: reviews stripped out, new reviews blocked, and under the undertakings Google gave the CMA in January 2025, a warning notice displayed on the profiles of UK businesses found using fake reviews. A public banner telling customers you cheated does commercial damage no fine needs to top up.

The exposure is layered rather than either-or. The same purchased batch of reviews can trigger Google sanctions, CMA attention, and in principle civil claims from competitors or customers who relied on them. The person or agency who sold them faces the commissioning ban too, and takes your money while sharing none of your risk.

It is worth saying that scale matters to regulators. The CMA's early enforcement focus has been on platforms and larger operations, and a sole trader is unlikely to be the first test case. But the warning-banner regime is aimed squarely at ordinary local businesses, and the reputational penalty is the one that arrives first.