Fake and abusive reviews: removal requests filed for your business

Who asks us for help with reviews

A dentist in Kraków finds three one-star ratings from people who were never patients. A webshop in Utrecht receives ten bad reviews in one night, then an email asking for money to stop them. A hotel in Valencia sees a review that names a staff member and gives her phone number. A Swedish restaurant owner spends an hour every day answering ratings, some of them from a competitor.

These are the cases we handle. They have one thing in common: the review appears to break a rule the platform has written itself. That rule is the key to every request. A review that is only harsh, or that you think is unfair, is a different matter, and we tell you so before you pay.

Choose your review platform

Each platform has its own report form, its own list of grounds and its own appeal route. Pick the one where the review sits. For a wave of fake ratings, read fake review attacks; for ongoing work on several profiles, see review management.

What can be reported, and on which basis

Platforms do not delete a review because the business disagrees with it. They act when a review breaks their content policy. The grounds below exist on most large platforms, with different names.

Since 28 May 2022 the Omnibus Directive 2019/2161 bans submitting or ordering false reviews everywhere in the EU, and traders that publish reviews must say how they check them. This is a fair point to make in a request. It does not oblige Google or any other platform to delete a given review: each platform applies its own policy.

How we handle a review case

1. You send the link to the review and a few lines about what is wrong. We check it against the platform’s rules and tell you if a request has a fair chance.
2. You sign a short mandate and send a copy of your ID or company details, so the platform sees that the request is made for the profile owner.
3. We prepare the request: the right ground, the evidence, a short factual explanation. We file it through the owner’s report tool or the platform’s legal form, the same day you order.
4. We follow up. If the first answer is no, we use the appeal route where it exists (Google’s review appeal, the internal complaint system required by DSA art. 20) and file again with better evidence.
5. We report back with what was filed, when and the platform’s answer.

You can report a review yourself, for free, with the platform’s button. We do it for you, choose the ground that fits, add the evidence and keep track of the answers. NetClearer is not a law firm and does not give legal advice.

What we never do, and what stays online

• Genuine reviews stay. A real customer may describe a bad experience, even in hard words. Polish courts have said that a doctor “must count on being rated, also harshly”.
• We never write, buy or reward reviews, and we never send fake complaints, fake copyright notices or invented articles.
• We do not decide that a review is illegal. We write that it “appears to break” a given policy and let the platform judge.
• Court routes need a lawyer. If you want the author identified or an order from a judge, consult a lawyer in your country.

Price and payment

One review request costs €20 incl. VAT. A pack of 3 costs €54 incl. VAT and a pack of 10 costs €149 incl. VAT (€14.90 per review). You pay for the work: checking, filing, following up and reporting. The platform decides, so we cannot sell a result. Agencies that charge only on success build the cost of failed cases into a higher price per review.

No refund once your request has been filed. You have 14 days to withdraw. If you ask us to start at once, you lose that right when your request has been filed and you have been informed; if you withdraw before, you pay only for the work already done. All prices are on the pricing page.