The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into 5 companies over fake and misleading reviews.
Autotrader, Feefo, Dignity, Just Eat and Pasta Evangelists are the 5 firms named by the competition watchdog.
“Fake reviews strike at the heart of consumer trust – with many of us worrying about misleading content when looking at reviews online,” said Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA.
“With household budgets under pressure, people need to know they’re getting genuine information – not reviews or star-ratings that have been manipulated to push them towards the wrong choice.
“We’ve given businesses the time to get things right. Now we’re deploying our new powers to tackle some of the most harmful practices head on.”
CMA quoted research from Which? which found that 89% of people use reviews when researching a product or service.
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The investigation is to determine whether the 5 business have infringed consumer law.
With Autotrader and Feefo it’s examining the treatment of negative reviews and whether a number of 1‑star reviews – which were moderated by Feefo – were not published on Autotrader’s platform, and were not counted towards star ratings, “therefore denying consumers a fully rounded picture of other customers’ experiences.”
An Autotrader spokesperson said:
“We note that the CMA, exercising its new direct consumer enforcement powers, has today announced an investigation into a number of companies, including Autotrader and our third-party moderator, in relation to online consumer reviews. We endeavour always to operate as a responsible and compliant business and will co‑operate fully with the CMA’s investigation”
CMA is also looking into misleading reviews at Dignity and whether the company asked staff to write positive reviews about its crematoria services.
The Just East investigation is around star ratings and whether the system had “inflated certain restaurants’ and grocers’ star ratings – giving consumers a potentially misleading picture of quality when choosing where to order.”
Finally CMA is looking at whether Pasta Evangelists gave customers discounts on future orders in exchange for leaving 5-star reviews on delivery apps, without this being disclosed.
The watchdog added that while it was investigating the 5 business, it has not reached any conclusion as to whether consumer law has been broken.
Since April 2025 a number of practices relating to online reviews were banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act), so they are automatically deemed unfair and illegal.
These include obtaining and posting fake reviews, and paid-for reviews that are not clearly marked as incentivised. It also covers how reviews are handled – for example, if negative reviews are hidden, or if star ratings present an inaccurate picture.
If companies are found to be in beach of the law, CMA can require them to change their practices and impose fines of up to 10% of their global turnover.
We have approached Autotrader for a comment.
