Are Fake Reviews Illegal in India? The Law on Buying, Posting and Removing Reviews

Are fake reviews illegal in India?

India has no single statute on fake reviews, unlike the United States, where a Federal Trade Commission rule banning fake and bought reviews took effect on 21 October 2024. Indian liability is assembled from consumer protection law, the e-commerce rules for online sellers, the law of defamation, and the policies every business accepts when it lists on a platform such as Google. In practice the platform is usually the first to act.

What counts as a fake review?

A fake review is one that is not based on a genuine experience of the business, or that hides the reviewer's real relationship with it. Google's Maps policy lists the familiar forms: reviews paid for in cash or in kind, reviews posted from several accounts by or for one person, reviews given in return for discounts or free services, and reviews by staff, relatives, contractors or competitors with a conflict of interest. A review an agency drafts in a customer's voice is fake too.

A fake review is not the same as a negative one, and neither is the same as a false one. A real customer who had a poor experience may write something harsh, one-sided or unfair, and that is opinion the law generally protects. A review is false where it asserts untrue facts, such as a claim that a clinic reuses needles, and a false statement of fact can be defamatory even when a real customer wrote it.

What the law says: Consumer Protection Act, E-Commerce Rules and CCPA guidelines

The Consumer Protection Act 2019 never uses the word review, but its definitions fit the practice closely. An advertisement includes any representation or endorsement made through electronic media, the internet or a website; an endorsement is any message that leads consumers to believe it reflects the opinion or experience of the person making it; and an unfair trade practice includes falsely representing that goods or services have approval, performance or characteristics they lack. A fabricated five-star review is therefore likely to be treated as both a misleading advertisement and an unfair trade practice.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) can order a false or misleading advertisement to be discontinued or modified. Under section 21 it can fine a manufacturer or endorser up to ₹10 lakh, or ₹50 lakh for later contraventions, fine a party to the publication up to ₹10 lakh, and bar an endorser for up to one year, or three for repeat contraventions. Section 89 separately makes it an offence for a manufacturer or service provider to cause a false or misleading advertisement prejudicial to consumers: up to two years' imprisonment and a ₹10 lakh fine, rising to five years and ₹50 lakh for later offences.

The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules 2020, notified on 23 July 2020, are explicit. Rule 6(2) bars a marketplace seller from falsely representing itself as a consumer and posting reviews, or misrepresenting the quality or features of goods or services, and Rule 7(2) imposes the same bar on inventory e-commerce entities that sell their own stock. Rule 4(3) forbids every e-commerce entity from adopting any unfair trade practice, and Rule 8 applies the Consumer Protection Act to any breach of the Rules.

Two sets of CCPA guidelines add detail on endorsements and disguised advertising. The misleading advertisements and endorsements guidelines of 9 June 2022 require an endorsement to reflect the genuine, reasonably current opinion of the endorser, based on adequate information about or experience with the product, and require any material connection with the advertiser to be disclosed. The dark patterns guidelines of 30 November 2023 list disguised advertising, including advertising dressed up as user reviews, among prohibited practices and place the duty to disclose on the seller or advertiser.

What is IS 19000:2022, and is it mandatory?

IS 19000:2022, Online Consumer Reviews: Principles and Requirements for their Collection, Moderation and Publication, was announced by the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Standards on 21 November 2022 and took effect four days later. It applies to any organisation that publishes consumer reviews online, including a business collecting reviews from its own customers, expects review administrators to verify authors and moderate content, and rules out publishing reviews that were bought or written by people employed for that purpose. It was voluntary at launch.

In May 2024 the Department of Consumer Affairs consulted Amazon, Flipkart, Google, Meta and others on a draft quality control order to make IS 19000:2022 mandatory, and the platforms were reported to back it. The draft, which the Department said would go to public consultation, would require review authors to be identifiable, bar editing of reviews to change their message, and prohibit preventing or discouraging negative reviews. This guide does not treat the standard as binding as of 10 September 2026; check the current position before relying on it either way.

Is it illegal to buy Google reviews?

Buying Google reviews breaks Google's rules in every case, and in India it also exposes the buyer to consumer law. Google treats reviews paid for directly or in kind as fake engagement, and a bought review presented as a customer's own experience is the kind of undisclosed endorsement the Consumer Protection Act and the 2022 guidelines target. Marketplace sellers also face the express ban in the E-Commerce Rules.

Google's sanctions are the consequence most businesses meet first. Where it finds fake engagement, Google says it may stop a Business Profile receiving new reviews for a set period, unpublish its existing reviews for a set period, and show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed. It emails the owner first and allows an appeal. The scale is large: Google blocked or removed more than 240 million policy-violating reviews in 2024 and more than 292 million in 2025, and took down more than 13 million fake Business Profiles in 2025.

Can staff, family or incentivised customers review your business?

Reviews from people connected to a business are not allowed on Google. Its conflict-of-interest rule covers reviews based on current or former employment, a contractual or consultancy relationship, or a personal affiliation such as family or a competing business, so reviews by employees, relatives, suppliers or your marketing agency do not belong on your listing, however sincere. Under Indian law, the CCPA's endorsement guidelines require a material connection with the business to be disclosed, and a review posing as an ordinary customer's does the opposite.

Incentives are prohibited even when the resulting review is honest. Google bars offering payment, discounts, free goods or services in return for posting a review, changing one or removing a negative one. It also bars discouraging negative reviews, asking only customers you expect to be satisfied, pressing people to review while on the premises, requesting particular content, and asking staff to collect a set number of reviews or reviews that name a staff member. Discount-for-review cards and prize draws for reviewers fall foul of these rules.

Fake negative reviews from competitors or ex-employees: what are your remedies?

Google's policy expressly prohibits posting content on a competitor's listing to undermine its reputation, and its conflict-of-interest rule reaches former employees as well as current ones. The platform report is therefore the first remedy. Flag each review under the specific policy it breaks and attach the evidence that links it to a competitor or former employee, such as matching names, timing that follows a dismissal or a lost contract, or accounts that have reviewed only you and one rival.

Where a review asserts false facts that harm your reputation, it can be defamation under section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (formerly sections 499 and 500 of the IPC), which supports a criminal complaint as well as a civil suit for an injunction and damages. A trader who spreads false or misleading facts disparaging a rival's goods, services or trade also commits an unfair trade practice under section 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act. A legal notice to an identifiable author can end the matter without litigation.

Can a business remove negative reviews from Google?

A business cannot have a review removed simply because it is negative. It can reply to a review or flag it, but cannot delete it, and Google tells owners not to report a review merely because they dislike or disagree with it, adding that it stays out of disputes between businesses and their customers. Only reviews that break Google's policies, or that are unlawful, qualify for removal. A genuine complaint about slow service or a disputed bill will stay up.

For reviews that do qualify, report them from the Business Profile or through Google's Reviews Management Tool, which tracks each report and allows a one-time appeal covering up to 10 reviews. Unlawful content can also go through Google's legal removal request. Under the IT Rules 2021 as amended with effect from 20 February 2026, a grievance officer must resolve complaints within 7 days and most removal complaints within 36 hours, and content must come down within 3 hours of a court order or government notice.

Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules 2021 requires platforms to make reasonable efforts not to host information that is patently false and untrue or misleading, that impersonates another person, or that violates any law in force, and section 79 of the IT Act ties a platform's safe harbour to that due diligence. The word defamatory was deleted from Rule 3(1)(b) in 2022, on the government's view that courts decide what is defamatory, so a complaint lands better when it proves a review is fake or demonstrably false than when it merely asserts defamation.

Review extortion scams and paid review removal offers

Google warns business owners about a specific scam: a sudden run of one-star and two-star reviews, followed by a message offering to make them disappear in exchange for money, goods or services. Its advice is not to engage or pay, because paying invites further attempts and does not ensure removal, but to gather evidence at once and use its dedicated extortion report form, with screenshots of the demands, links to the reviews and details of who made the demand and when.

A demand for money to remove reviews is itself a crime. Section 308 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita defines extortion as dishonestly inducing someone to hand over property by intentionally putting them in fear of injury; injury includes harm to reputation, and one of the section's illustrations is a threat to publish a defamatory libel unless money is paid. Extortion is punishable with up to seven years' imprisonment, a fine, or both. Report it to the police or through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, which also accepts reports of suspect phone numbers and social media profiles.

Treat unsolicited offers to remove reviews for a fee with suspicion. There is no lawful basis for forcing a genuine negative review down, so a provider that promises to delete one, or guarantees removal of any review, is either overstating what platforms allow or planning to misuse reporting systems, sometimes with fabricated legal notices or forged court orders. Packages that pair fresh five-star reviews with removal of bad ones are worse still, because the first half breaches Google's policy and consumer law.

How to build Google reviews lawfully

The lawful method is unglamorous and effective: ask every customer, at a natural point after the service, with the same neutral request. Google provides a review link and QR code for this and allows businesses to encourage genuine reviews, provided no incentive is attached. Ask everyone rather than only the customers you expect to be pleased, do not suggest wording, and do not press anyone to review before leaving the premises. Google itself says a blend of good and bad reviews often seems more credible to customers.

Reply to reviews, particularly critical ones, promptly and in a measured tone: acknowledge any genuine mistake, explain what has changed, and move the detail to a private channel without revealing the customer's personal information. If you send free samples to reviewers or pay creators to discuss your product, require them to disclose the connection, as the CCPA's endorsement guidelines expect.

When is an agency like RepuLex worth involving?

RepuLex, India's #1 legal-first online reputation management agency, does not write, buy or post reviews, and it does not take on the removal of genuine reviews, however unwelcome. It acts only where a review is fake, defamatory or otherwise unlawful, or breaks the platform's own policy. The work is evidence-led: tying fake reviews to their source, drafting policy and grievance complaints that cite the correct rule, and, where a platform will not act, legal notices and court applications handled through its partner law firm, Unified Chambers And Associates.

Outside help makes sense when your own reports have been rejected on appeal, when an attack is coordinated or comes with an extortion demand, or when the same false claims have spread beyond one platform. RepuLex charges a fixed fee of ₹99,999 per link for standard-complexity removals, plus GST. Fees are payable in advance and refunded in full if the agreed removal is not delivered within the agreed timeline, including where a platform refuses. Where a review is simply negative, the better investment is in fixing what it complains about.