CMA Review Compliance: How to Check for Free

If you sell to UK consumers and display customer reviews on your website, you need to comply with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulations on consumer reviews. These aren't suggestions - they're enforceable law under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

The penalties for non-compliance are real: the CMA can impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover, and they've already taken enforcement action against major brands including social media platforms and cosmetics companies.

The good news: checking your review compliance takes under a minute with PageDiag's free Review Compliance Checker. Here's what you need to know - and what we check.

What the CMA Says About Reviews

The CMA's guidance on consumer reviews covers several key areas. Here's the plain-English version:

1. No Fake Reviews

This seems obvious, but "fake" covers more than you might think:

Fabricated reviews - reviews written by the business or paid writers
Purchased reviews - reviews bought from review farms or agencies
Staff reviews - reviews written by employees without disclosure
Reviews for products not purchased - reviews from people who haven't actually bought or used the product

If you've ever been tempted to "seed" a new product with a few positive reviews from friends or staff, that's technically illegal under CMA rules.

2. No Review Gating

Review gating is the practice of screening customers before asking for a review. The typical pattern:

Send a post-purchase email asking "How was your experience?"
If the customer responds positively → direct them to leave a public review
If the customer responds negatively → direct them to private customer service

This creates an artificially positive review profile. The CMA considers it a misleading practice, even if every individual review displayed is genuine. The problem is the selection bias - you're only publishing reviews from satisfied customers.

Many review apps do this by default. Check your review app settings for anything labelled "satisfaction survey first", "pre-review question", or "feedback routing". If it routes unhappy customers away from the public review process, it's review gating.

3. Incentivised Reviews Must Be Disclosed

You can offer customers an incentive to leave a review (discount code, free shipping, loyalty points), but:

The review must be clearly labelled as incentivised
The disclosure must be visible before reading the review
The incentive can't be conditional on leaving a positive review
Loyalty programme reviews that reward submission need disclosure

This applies to apps like Stamped's "review for points" feature, Loox's photo review discounts, and similar incentivisation schemes.

4. Accurate Rating Display

Your displayed star rating must accurately reflect your actual reviews. Common violations:

Rounding up - displaying 4.7 as 5 stars
Selective display - only showing 4+ star reviews on product pages
Aggregating across products - using your store's overall rating on individual product pages
Outdated ratings - displaying high ratings from old reviews when recent reviews are lower
Schema mismatch - your JSON-LD AggregateRating says 4.8 but your displayed reviews average 4.3

That last one is particularly risky because Google can detect the mismatch and may penalise your rich snippets - on top of the CMA compliance issue.

5. No Suppression of Negative Reviews

You cannot:

Delete negative reviews (unless they violate genuine content policies like spam or abuse)
De-prioritise negative reviews so they appear last
Make it harder to leave negative reviews than positive ones
Require moderation/approval for low-star reviews but auto-publish high-star reviews

If your review app has a "moderation" feature, check how it's configured. Auto-publishing 4-5 star reviews while manually moderating 1-3 star reviews is suppression.

How to Check Your Review Compliance

The Quick Way: PageDiag's Free Checker

PageDiag's Review Compliance Checker analyses your store's review practices automatically. Here's what it checks:

Schema accuracy - does your AggregateRating schema match your actual displayed reviews?
Rating display - are star ratings accurately represented?
Review markup - is review data properly structured in JSON-LD?
Review count consistency - does the schema review count match what's displayed?
Incentivisation indicators - signs of undisclosed incentivised reviews

Run a scan at pagediag.com/review-compliance-checker - it takes under a minute and flags specific issues with recommendations.

For a more detailed analysis, use PageDiag's Review Compliance Tool.

The Manual Way: A Self-Audit Checklist

If you prefer to check manually, work through this checklist:

Review Collection:

[ ] Do you ask all customers for reviews, not just satisfied ones?
[ ] Is there no pre-screening question before the review form?
[ ] Can customers leave any star rating equally easily?
[ ] Are incentives for reviews clearly disclosed?

Review Display:

[ ] Are all genuine reviews displayed (not just positive ones)?
[ ] Is the star rating an accurate average of all reviews?
[ ] Are reviews shown in chronological order (newest first) by default?
[ ] Can shoppers filter by star rating to see negative reviews?

Technical Compliance:

[ ] Does your AggregateRating schema match actual review data?
[ ] Are individual Review schema entries genuine customer reviews?
[ ] Is the reviewCount in schema accurate?
[ ] Are incentivised reviews marked as such in display?

Review Management:

[ ] Are negative reviews published without extra moderation delays?
[ ] Is your moderation policy applied equally to all star ratings?
[ ] Do you respond to negative reviews (good practice, not required)?

Common Review Apps and CMA Compliance

Different review apps handle compliance differently. Here's what to watch for:

Judge.me

Generally good on compliance by default, but check:

Automatic publishing settings - ensure all ratings auto-publish equally
Photo review incentives need disclosure
Imported reviews from other platforms need careful handling

Loox

Photo review incentives (discount for photo review) must be disclosed. Check:

"Review for discount" flows must label resulting reviews as incentivised
Photo-only display settings that hide text-only reviews may be problematic

Yotpo

Robust compliance features available, but check:

Pre-purchase solicitation settings (no review gating)
Incentivised review labelling is enabled
Syndicated reviews across products are clearly attributed

Trustpilot

Trustpilot has its own compliance framework, but as the merchant you're still responsible for:

Not selectively inviting only happy customers
Not offering incentives without disclosure through Trustpilot
Ensuring your on-site display accurately reflects Trustpilot ratings

Stamped

"Review for points" features need explicit disclosure. Check:

Loyalty programme integration labels incentivised reviews
Smart reminders don't filter by sentiment before sending

What Happens if You're Not Compliant?

The CMA has escalating enforcement powers:

Investigation - the CMA can investigate based on complaints, monitoring, or random audits
Undertakings - you may be asked to commit to changes within a timeframe
Enforcement orders - legally binding orders to change practices
Fines - up to 10% of global turnover for serious breaches
Director liability - directors can be held personally responsible

Beyond CMA enforcement:

Google penalties - mismatched review schema can lose your rich snippets in search results
Consumer trust - if customers discover manipulated reviews, the reputational damage is often worse than the fine
Competitor complaints - competitors can report non-compliant review practices to the CMA

The Upside of Genuine Reviews

Compliance isn't just about avoiding penalties. Genuine, unfiltered reviews actually perform better:

Stores with 3.5-4.5 star averages convert better than those with perfect 5-star ratings. Consumers are sophisticated - they distrust perfection.
Negative reviews reduce returns because customers have realistic expectations about what they're buying.
Detailed negative reviews help product development - they tell you exactly what to improve.
Responding to negative reviews builds trust - a thoughtful response to a 2-star review demonstrates customer service quality better than any marketing copy.

Check Your Store Today

Review compliance in the UK isn't optional anymore. The CMA is actively enforcing, and the regulations are clear. The earlier you check and fix issues, the lower your risk.

Option 1: Run a free compliance check - takes under a minute, flags specific issues.

Option 2: Use PageDiag's detailed Review Compliance Tool for a comprehensive analysis.

Option 3: Work through the manual checklist above and audit your review app settings.

Whatever approach you take, don't put it off. A CMA letter is much more expensive than 10 minutes of proactive compliance checking.