UK bans fake reviews and sneaky fees

From the actual government announcement (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.uk&#x2F;government&#x2F;news&#x2F;fake-reviews-and-sneaky-hidden-fees-banned-once-and-for-all" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.uk&#x2F;government&#x2F;news&#x2F;fake-reviews-and-sneaky-h...</a>):<p>&gt; Website hosts are accountable for the reviews on their page. Businesses and online platforms will be legally required to take steps to prevent and remove the publication of fake reviews that are published on their websites. This could include, for example, having adequate detection and removal procedures in place to prevent fake reviews being published.<p>I guess the big question is what that ends up meaning, and how well it&#x27;s enforced. If companies start getting significant fines for hosting fake reviews (especially the likes of Google and Amazon) then that might encourage them to do something about them - but that requires an enforcement agency with teeth, and for them to prove that the reviews are fake, which often isn&#x27;t easy.

It sounds great but how do you prevent it? The sellers are all based abroad.<p>If I look at any product on Amazon now, say a USB C cable, it’s full of fake reviews. Take this one as an example which came up as a sponsored link - 4.3&#x2F;5 rated - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.eu&#x2F;d&#x2F;bHCXNQG" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;amzn.eu&#x2F;d&#x2F;bHCXNQG</a> - 7% of reviews are 1* and variously say that the description is misleading in capabilities of the cable, the cable broke, etc.<p>If you look at the 5* reviews and click through to any profile writing them, they’re giving out all 5* reviews on a totally random array of cheap Chinese products. On top of that they’re always on products that no real person would buy since they’re always a mixture of things aimed at young&#x2F;old and male&#x2F;female, and yet the reviews are all written in the first person. If you’re not at least skeptical you will end up wasting money on rubbish. You have to now look at the distribution of reviews rather than the overall average since fake ones at 4 and 5 star swamp all else.<p>Here in the U.K. I prefer Argos for small purchases I used to make from Amazon, but it’s not got the full range of items you might want to buy online unfortunately.

Glad to see this.<p>Booking fee, service fee, transaction fee, technology fee, banking fee, payment handling fee, convenience fee, venue fee, ticket handling fee, verification fee, administration fee etc etc etc.<p>So underhanded - they&#x27;re just making fees up at this stage.

well done UK! Airlines and car rental companies are crazily misleading with their sneaky fees.<p>I hope the EU outlaws this too (which I thought it did at some point, but Ryanair and Wizzair keep doing it anyway so I may have been mistaken).

The UK has great consumer protection laws.<p>I didn’t realise this until I lived abroad (Colombia, USA). It’s something we should be proud of and I wish other countries would emulate

Looks somewhat promising. They&#x27;ve given the regulators a bit more power. Time will tell if companies are actually scared of the regulators. And if larger companies just take it as the cost of doing business and smaller companies give up, with the added burden of even more red tape (unfortunate timing with the trade war perhaps.)<p>The fake reviews part is just political theatre. It would take a multi year investigation by the regulators and probably will lead nowhere. And smaller companies may decide not to advertise their reviews for fear of investigation, so bigger companies will get away with it. Bigger companies are probably excited about this new law

So far ... It&#x27;s alleged one of the demands in the current US&#x2F;UK trade negotiations is removal on all these &quot;restrictions&quot; on US internet companies.<p>Edit: Source - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;us-news&#x2F;2025&#x2F;apr&#x2F;03&#x2F;uk-trade-deal-us-concessions-food-safety-digital-services-vat" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;us-news&#x2F;2025&#x2F;apr&#x2F;03&#x2F;uk-trade-dea...</a> and another one from a campaigning group: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.globaljustice.org.uk&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2025&#x2F;03&#x2F;Trump-Big-Tech-trade-deal-briefing-April-2025.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.globaljustice.org.uk&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2025&#x2F;03&#x2F;...</a>

How exactly will they enforce a ban on fake reviews? Will reviewers be needing to upload a copy of their photo id for verification?

How is it that sneaky fees were ever legal? Surely the legal principle is very well established that the price shown is &#x27;the price&#x27;? And that sneaky fees were already illegal?<p>I can&#x27;t help but wonder whether a blind eye was turned, in order to then require new legislation that includes onerous clauses. Such as requiring photo id&#x2F;verification etc, as others say. Ie that whatever this legislation is, it may be an open ended expansion of legal powers.

Does this extend to restraunts that now sneakily adding service charge onto a bill by default in order to prey on customers feelings of awkwardness? I always find that one stings and really irks me

good well done EU