Let's start with the one nobody sees coming.
If you have ever paid for followers, likes or views —or if you are thinking about hiring someone to "grow your social fast"— that is no longer just a bad marketing idea. Since October 2024 it violates a federal rule, one with a name and a number: 16 CFR Part 465, section 465.8.
Almost everyone assumes the reviews rule is about reviews. It is — but it is also about fake indicators of social media influence. And that is where businesses get caught who never bought a review in their lives.
Let's take it in order.
What this rule is
It is called the Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, the Federal Trade Commission issued it, and it took effect on October 21, 2024.
Before it, the FTC could pursue these practices as deceptive advertising, but the road was long. With a rule of its own, the road is shorter: it can seek civil penalties directly, and that changes the math for anyone weighing the risk.
What follows is not a list of recommendations. These are six prohibited practices, each with its own section.
The six prohibited practices
1 · Fake reviews and testimonials · §465.2
Creating, buying, selling or spreading reviews from people who never used the product or service.
That covers inventing customers, using fake accounts, paying someone to write opinions, and —this part is new and explicit— publishing AI-generated reviews passed off as real experiences.
And it runs both ways: writing fake negative reviews about a competitor is prohibited too.
2 · Buying positive or negative reviews · §465.4
Both sides are on the hook here. If you hire a service that promises "fifty five-star reviews this month," you are both exposed.
3 · Reviews from people close to the business · §465.5
If an employee, a partner, a family member or the owner writes a review of the business, that relationship has to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously.
The realistic case is not an owner writing his own review. It is the boss asking the team, in the company group chat, to "please leave us five stars." That is covered too.
4 · Company-controlled review websites · §465.6
Running a review site that looks independent when you control it.
5 · Suppressing negative reviews · §465.7
And not just by hiding them. The rule prohibits using unfounded legal threats, physical threats, intimidation or knowingly false public accusations to keep a review from being written or to get it taken down.
"Unfounded legal threat" has its own definition: a threat based on arguments the law does not support, or on factual claims with no evidence behind them.
Translated: sending a lawyer's letter to an unhappy customer to scare them, knowing you have no case, is the conduct this section describes.
6 · Fake indicators of social media influence · §465.8
The one from the top. Buying or selling followers, likes, views or any other fake indicator of influence.
Plenty of small businesses bought followers back when it was just vanity. Today it is conduct with a name in a federal rule.
What you can still do
This part matters as much as the last one, because some people read all of the above and freeze.
You can ask your customers for reviews. Asking for an honest opinion from someone who actually bought from you is perfectly legal, and it is what you should be doing.
You can offer incentives, with one condition. What is prohibited is conditioning the reward on the sentiment of the review. This does not work:
"We'll give you a coupon if you leave us five stars."
This does:
"We'll give you a coupon for leaving your opinion, whatever it says."
That is exactly the difference. It is not a technicality: it is the whole distance between asking for opinions and buying approval.
You can respond to negative reviews, disagree publicly and give your side. What you cannot do is threaten to make them disappear.
What if someone posts a fake review about you?
This rule is not only a list of prohibitions for you. It also protects you.
If a competitor or someone who was never a customer posts a made-up review to hurt you, that person is doing exactly what section 465.2 prohibits. Your options, in order:
One: report it to the platform. Google, Yelp and Facebook all have processes for this. Document why that person was never a customer.
Two: keep evidence. Dated screenshots, records showing the transaction never existed, anything that backs your version. Without evidence, your claim is your word against theirs.
Three: if there is a pattern, escalate. One fake review is noise. Ten in two weeks from new accounts is a scheme, and that is worth reporting.
Four: get advice before you threaten. Here is the trap. If you answer a fake review with a legal threat you cannot back up, you switch sides: you go from being the injured party to falling under section 465.7.
What happens if you break it
The FTC can investigate and seek civil penalties. I am not putting a figure here because the maximum is adjusted every year and I do not want you making decisions on a stale number; if this touches you, your attorney confirms that figure against the current source.
But for a small business the hit usually arrives from somewhere else first. Platforms act on their own, and much faster:
- They delete reviews in bulk
- They suspend the profile
- They restrict the business account
- They remove the business listing
- They permanently block repeat offenders
Losing the Google Business listing of a local business does more damage than almost any fine. And that decision is not made by a judge in two years: it is made by an algorithm on a Tuesday.
What actually changed
The rule did not invent honesty. Buying reviews was already a bad idea before October 2024, and everybody knew it.
What changed is that there is now a concrete text, with numbered sections, that names each practice and gives the FTC a direct path to penalize it. What used to be "that's shady" is now "that's section 465.8."
And for a business doing things right, this is good news. For years you competed against places with two hundred bought reviews while you collected twenty real ones. That asymmetry now has consequences.
This content is informational and educational. It does not constitute legal advice. If your business faces a dispute over fake reviews or a possible claim, it is worth consulting an attorney specializing in commercial law or consumer protection.
Sources: Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, in force since October 21, 2024. Sections cited: 465.2 (fake reviews), 465.4 (buying reviews), 465.5 (insider reviews), 465.6 (company-controlled review websites), 465.7 (review suppression), 465.8 (fake indicators of social media influence). Verified in August 2026 against the eCFR text and the FTC's business guidance.
