What are the rules for reviews?
Short answer
Reviews must describe a real experience, be your own, and stay respectful and free of personal data. Businesses can reply and invite, but can't pay, hide reviews or invite only happy customers.
Rules for reviewers
- Be 16 or older and write only about your own, real experience with the business.
- No conflicts of interest. Don't review your own business, your employer or a competitor.
- Be open about incentives. If you got a discount, a gift or payment for your review, say so in the review.
- One review per business. Writing again updates your existing review.
- No personal information, such as names, phone numbers, email or home addresses, about you or anyone else.
- No offensive or hateful language. Criticism is fine. Insults, threats and hate are not.
- No spam or advertising, and no content that isn't about an experience, such as questions or general opinions.
Rules for businesses
- Reply politely and don't share customers' personal data in replies.
- Invite all your customers, not only happy ones.
- Don't pay or reward people for reviews, and don't write reviews about yourself or competitors.
- No business can pay to change its score or hide reviews, on any plan.
Breaking these rules can lead to warnings, removed reviews, or paused reviews on a business page.
How we enforce them
When content breaks a rule, we remove it or add a label. The person affected always gets the rule and a written reason, and can appeal within 6 months. Reported reviews stay visible until a moderator decides. Disagreeing with a review is not a reason to remove it.
These are the main rules in plain words. The full rules are in our Terms of use.