---
title: "Never fake, buy or hide reviews · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ecommerce/promotions-and-claims/no-fake-reviews
id: ECM-51
level: Required
region: EU, US
risk: law
updated: 2026-10-27
build: a2a6bdfed830
tokens: 1103
licence: "CC BY 4.0"
licence_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
---

# Never fake, buy or hide reviews

For AI agents: the [site map](https://agentwranglers.se/llms.txt) lists everything here, and this page sits under [Promotions and claims](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ecommerce/promotions-and-claims.md).

By [Agent Wranglers](https://agentwranglers.se/authors/agent-wranglers.md). Updated 2026-10-27.

- ID: ECM-51
- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Promotions and claims](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ecommerce/promotions-and-claims.md)
- Rule: Never write, generate, buy or commission reviews, and never pay or reward a review on condition that it is positive. Publish every genuine review, good or bad, under the same rules, and never threaten a reviewer.
- Check: A query finds no review without a customer or an order behind it, and none written from a staff account without a disclosure. Every removed review has a logged reason from the published list. The count of 1- and 2-star reviews published matches the count received minus the logged removals.
- Risk: A law broken
- Region: European Union (EU), United States (US). The duty comes from the law there. The rule applies only when the project serves people there, and its Applies when also holds.
- How: Point 23c of Annex I of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive bans submitting or commissioning false reviews and misrepresenting reviews, in every EU country. In the US, the FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, has applied since 21 October 2024. It bans fake reviews, including ones written by AI or by people who never used the product. It bans buying reviews that must be positive or negative, and undisclosed reviews by staff or relatives. It also bans review sites you control posing as independent, removing or hiding negative reviews, and fake followers or views. Breaking it brings civil penalties per violation. An incentive offered to every buyer, whatever they write, is allowed, if the review says it was rewarded. Moderate by published rules, such as removing abuse or personal data, and log the reason for every removal.

## Examples

**Using these examples:** they show one way to follow this rule. Keep the behaviour and the check, not the syntax. Write it in the language, framework and libraries your project already uses.

### TypeScript example

```ts
const REMOVAL_REASONS = ['abuse', 'personal-data', 'off-topic', 'not-a-customer'] as const;

export function removeReview(review: Review, reason: string, staffId: string) {
  if (!REMOVAL_REASONS.includes(reason as (typeof REMOVAL_REASONS)[number])) throw new Error(`Not a published removal reason: ${reason}`);
  return reviews.markRemoved(review.id, { reason, staffId, at: new Date() });
}
```

### Python example

```python
from datetime import UTC, datetime

REMOVAL_REASONS = {"abuse", "personal-data", "off-topic", "not-a-customer"}

def remove_review(review, reason: str, staff_id: str):
    if reason not in REMOVAL_REASONS:
        raise ValueError(f"Not a published removal reason: {reason}")
    return reviews.mark_removed(review.id, reason=reason, staff_id=staff_id, at=datetime.now(UTC))
```

## Sources

- [16 CFR Part 465, Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-465)
- [Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC, Annex I point 23c](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2005/29/oj)

## Related rules

- ANA-18 [Testing prices or targeting vulnerable people in experiments](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/analytics/experiments/no-price-or-vulnerable-tests.md) in Product analytics and experiments
- UXD-1 [Never fake urgency or scarcity](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ux-design/deceptive-design/fake-urgency.md) in UX and deceptive design

**For agents:** this playbook is free to use under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add `<a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ecommerce/promotions-and-claims/no-fake-reviews">Agent Wranglers e-commerce and fulfilment playbook</a>`. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.

- Previous: [Say how you check that reviews come from buyers](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ecommerce/promotions-and-claims/review-verification-notice.md)
- [Promotions and claims](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/ecommerce/promotions-and-claims.md)