Reviews valid only within thirty days, proof of purchase, no more hidden negative reviews. Here are the rules for those who write, those who receive and those who host reviews.
Sometimes it is enough to open the page of a restaurant or a hotel to find yourself in front of an infinite succession of five stars in which often not a single voice emerges from the chorus. Or we stumble upon a barrage of merciless judgments, criticisms that are suspiciously similar. From now on this phenomenon, i.e. the illicit reviews on products and services will be countered with more precise rules and tools.
October 19, 2026 the Competition and Market Authority (AGCM) has released the definitive text of the Guidelines for online reviews, introduced by law 34 of 11 March 2026, the so-called annual law on small and medium-sized enterprises. As stated in the press release, the objective is guarantee reliable online reviews and combat illicit ones relating to products, services and services offered by catering companies and structures in the tourist accommodation sector located in Italy. Before arriving at the final version, the Authority gathered the opinion of Agcom, the Privacy Guarantor and the ministries of Business and Made in Italy (MIMIT) del Tourism. The law, in force since April 7, dedicates a part of its text to the fight against false reviews in the catering and tourism sectors, which can now finally count on operating instructions which concern everyone: who writes a review, who receives it and the platforms that host it.
What the Antitrust Guidelines provide
These guidelines were designed specifically to make credible and reliable online reviews and to ensure that they come from those who have actually purchased or used a product or service, given the weight that they have on consumer choices. Those selling reviewed goods and services should provide clear and accessible information about how the reviews come about published, managed, classified and moderatedwhile those who host or make them available should take proportionate measures to ensure that reviews come from such consumers, as well as controls to identify and deal with illicit ones.
As stated in the text, an online review to be considered valid it must have been written no later than thirty days from the date of use of the product or use of the service, which are counted from the moment the consumer finished using the reviewed service. Who check out a review must be able to understandon the same page where you read it or via a clearly visible link, like that one review was managed and then published; if the professional chooses which reviews to publish he must say on the basis of which criteria, how he verifies their authenticity and, if there is an average score, how it is calculated and whether incentivized reviews or those linked to commercial relationships have an impact.
Verification tools
The measures available fall into three categories. The first concerns those tools that are used to ensure that the writer has actually bought or used the product or service he or she is talking aboutfor example through the proof of purchasetherefore a tax or accounting document, the card statement, the order or booking number, or an invitation to review sent to the email used to purchase, only once the order has been completed and to all customers without selections, or even the collection of reviews exclusively from the customer’s reserved area or through channels guaranteed by QR Code or OTP code. The second concerns those tools that allow you to trace who wrote the review, for example through the author traceabilityfor example through registration, confirmation links via email and IP checking. The third concerns i automatic systems that identify possible fraudsuch as the presence of many reviews from the same IP in a short time, repetitive linguistic patterns or profiles that do not appear to belong to real consumers.
Furthermore, as stated in the text, «professionals should refrain by suitable practices to manipulate reviewssuch as, by way of example only: remove or hide them negative reviewsdiscourage the publication of negative reviews, refer consumers’ appreciations to content different from that intended by the consumer, prepare pre-compiled templates of positive reviews, involve consumers in the moderation process in order to induce them to modify or delete their already published reviews, present aggregate assessments based on non-explicit or non-transparent criteria”.
In parallel, reviews whose content is the result of the incentive provided by the professional are always illegal. An advantage can be envisaged but it must not influence the sincerity of the judgment by nature, method or timing. And even when it doesn’t affect him, the reader must be informed that there was an incentive, with graphic signs that are impossible to ignore.
The Guidelines, as stated in the final provisions, “orient the Authority’s activity in the evaluation of commercial practices relating to the publication and moderation of reviews”. As for the future, the Authority has undertaken to review the Guidelines within one year of publicationtaking into account the monitoring provided for by law 34 itself, and to update them sooner if national or European regulations change or if relevant jurisprudential developments arrive.
