The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) [Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024] has both increased consumer protection rights in the UK and the enforcement powers of the main consumer regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) which for the first time has been granted wide-ranging powers to investigate suspected breaches of consumer law and unilaterally impose significant fines. Prior to the DMCCA the CMA had to go via the courts for a business to face fines, a power that was exercised infrequently [A New Era for Consumer Law and Regulation | Global IP & Technology Law Blog].

One of the many areas in which the DMCCA has increased and clarified consumer protection rights are fake reviews and reviews which conceal the fact that they have been provided in return for an incentive (whether monetary or otherwise) (banned reviews). The new rules apply to banned reviews however those are made available, whether online or otherwise.

In particular, the DMCCA has introduced specific new offences of submitting or commissioning a banned review, offering to procure a banned review and offering services that facilitate the submission, commission or publication of a banned review.

However, for legitimate traders who display or make available consumer reviews in any media (classified under the DMCCA as a “publisher”) one of the biggest changes is a new positive obligation to take effective action to prevent banned reviews appearing. That obligation includes requirements to: (1) have a clear policy on the prevention and removal of banned reviews; and (2) assess the risk of banned reviews appearing and take such further proactive steps as are “reasonable and proportionate” to address any risks that are identified.

In April the CMA published statutory guidance on the sort of measures which it expects publishers to have in place. That guidance makes clear that the CMA does not consider there to be a ’one size fits all’ or ’tick box’ approach that is appropriate for all publishers. As such, the regulator accepts that what is appropriate for one publisher might not be right for another [CMA208 – Fake reviews guidance]

Since publishing this guidance, the CMA has moved into enforcement territory -initially focused on the big players in the consumer review market. Indeed, earlier this year, the CMA secured undertakings from Google, including an agreement to sanction UK businesses that boost their star ratings with fake reviews as well as sanctioning people who have written fake reviews for UK businesses [CMA secures important changes from Google to tackle fake reviews – GOV.UK] and more recently formal undertakings have been secured from other high-profile brands to enhance existing systems for tackling fake reviews.

However, the CMA is not stopping there and on 6 June announced that in its next phase of work to tackle fake reviews it will be looking into the conduct of other players across the sector to determine whether further action is required [Online reviews – GOV.UK]. As part of this phase, the CMA is currently conducting an initial sweep of review platforms to identify those who need to do more to comply with these new requirements. As such, it is likely that many websites which publish consumer reviews but have not yet taken steps to comply with these new requirements will face enforcement action by the CMA if they fail to rectify that.