Is it legal to ask your customers for a review?
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Yes, asking for a review is lawful in France and across the European Union. What is prohibited is making the review conditional on something in return, asking only the customers you assume are satisfied, screening reviews before publication, or writing fake ones. Fake reviews and the absence of verification count as misleading commercial practices, punishable in France by two years' imprisonment and a €300,000 fine. Incentives, for their part, are prohibited by Google's policies and may be treated as misleading depending on their effects.
Is it legal to ask your customers for a review?
This is the first question business owners ask, and the short answer is reassuring: yes, asking for a review is entirely legal. What the law regulates is not the asking, it is the manipulation of the outcome.
What you may do
- Invite your customers to leave a review, in person, on a sign, by e-mail or with a plate to scan.
- Do it systematically, for every customer, without distinction.
- Reply publicly to a review, positive or negative.
- Report a defamatory, abusive or manifestly false review to the platform.
- Feature your rating and your reviews in your communications, provided they are genuine.
What is prohibited
Four practices fall outside the law.
Making the review conditional on something in return. A discount, a free coffee, loyalty points or entry into a prize draw in exchange for a review undermines its sincerity. The ban covers both a promised reward and one merely hinted at.
Sorting customers before asking. Asking only the customers you believe are happy, sometimes called review gating, produces an artificial rating. The invitation must be identical for everyone.
Screening reviews before publication. Inserting a form that forwards to the platform only those customers who first gave a good score, and redirects the others to a private contact, is a misleading practice. Google prohibits it in its own policies.
Writing or buying fake reviews. Writing reviews yourself, asking friends and family, or buying them from a provider.
Two rules specific to Google are often overlooked.
Asking for a review that names a staff member. Google prohibits merchants "asking their staff to solicit reviews that include specific content, including elements that identify a staff member". You may not ask a customer to name the person who served them.
Triggering a spike in reviews. Google penalises "unusual review volumes or patterns indicating attempts to manipulate" a rating. A mass campaign over a few days is therefore counterproductive, even if every review is genuine. A steady flow is both more credible and safer.
The applicable texts
| Text | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Directive (EU) 2019/2161, known as Omnibus | Requires traders who give access to reviews to state whether they verify authenticity and how. Prohibits fake reviews and fake recommendations |
| French consumer code, article L121-4 | Lists commercial practices deemed misleading, including falsely claiming reviews are genuine |
| French consumer code, article L132-2 | Sets the penalties for the offence: two years' imprisonment and a €300,000 fine. The fine may alternatively be raised to 10% of average annual turnover, or 50% of the spend on the practice. A company additionally faces the fivefold multiplier of article 131-38 of the criminal code. Version in force since 12 May 2024 |
| Google review policies | Prohibit incentives, screening, unusual review spikes and requests naming a staff member. Penalties range from removing reviews to closing the account |
| French consumer code, article L111-7-2 | Requires anyone publishing consumer reviews to disclose publication and checking methods, and to show the review date |
The amounts and references above are those in force in September 2026. For a specific situation, in particular if you publish reviews on your own site, have your setup validated by legal counsel.
Which law applies in your country
The articles cited above are French law. If you are established in Belgium or Luxembourg, the prohibitions are the same in substance, but the texts carrying them differ.
The reason is simple: these rules come from a European directive, Directive (EU) 2019/2161, which each member state transposed into its own law.
| Country | Transposing text |
|---|---|
| France | Consumer code, by ordinance no. 2021-1734 of 22 December 2021 |
| Luxembourg | Consumer code, by the law published on 30 November 2022, in force since 4 December 2022 |
| Belgium | Code of Economic Law, book VI on market practices and consumer protection |
In other words: what is prohibited is identical in all three countries, but penalties and procedures follow the law of your country of establishment. If you do not trade in France, refer to your national law rather than to the articles cited here.
Why playing fair is also the better strategy
The most convincing argument is not legal, it is commercial.
A perfect score with no critical review at all invites suspicion. Readers look at the negative reviews and, above all, at how the business replies to them. A 4.6 with a few complaints handled carefully converts better than a flat 5.0.
Opening the invitation to every customer also increases review volume. Satisfied customers are the large majority but rarely speak up on their own: getting them to talk is usually enough to lift your average, with no sorting whatsoever.
The case of a plate to scan
A plate on a counter offers the same thing to everyone: tap your phone and land on the review page. There is no selection, no intermediate form, nothing offered in return. The review goes straight to the platform, under the customer's own account.
That is also why we do not offer, and will not offer, any pre-screening mechanism: it would be unlawful, and it would expose you.
Further reading
Frequently asked questions
Can I offer a discount in exchange for a review?
No. Making a review conditional on something in return, whether a discount, a gift, a prize draw or loyalty points, undermines its sincerity. Google's policies prohibit it outright, with the risk of the reviews or the listing being removed. In legal terms, a review obtained against an undisclosed reward may be treated as a misleading commercial practice depending on its effects, EU directive 2019/2161 expressly targeting fake reviews and the absence of verification measures. You may however invite all your customers to leave a review, offering nothing in return.
Can I ask only the customers who seem happy?
No. That practice, known as review gating, means sorting customers before inviting them. It gives a distorted picture of reality and falls under the prohibition on misleading practices. Google forbids it explicitly in its review policies. The invitation must be offered in the same way to every customer.
Can I delete a negative review?
Not on your own initiative. You can report it to the platform if it is defamatory, abusive, off-topic or manifestly false, and the platform decides. Above all you can reply publicly, which readers often find more reassuring than a flawless score with no critical review at all.
What is the penalty for publishing fake reviews?
Publishing fake reviews is a misleading commercial practice. In France, article L132-2 of the consumer code provides for two years' imprisonment and a €300,000 fine, which may alternatively be raised to 10% of average annual turnover or 50% of the spend on the practice. A company additionally faces the fivefold multiplier of article 131-38 of the criminal code. The DGCCRF monitors this area and regularly publishes the results of its investigations.
Do I have to tell the customer their review will be public?
The review is posted directly on the chosen platform, under the customer's own account, so they can see where they are writing. However, if you collect reviews yourself to publish them on your own site, you must state whether reviews are checked and by what method, under the information obligations that apply to online reviews.
Does an NFC plate comply with these rules?
A plate sends every customer to the same page, with no prior sorting and nothing offered in return. It makes leaving a review easier; it influences neither its content nor its selection. That is precisely what the law permits, since what is regulated is not the asking but the manipulation of the outcome.
Which law applies if I am not based in France?
The prohibitions are the same across France, Belgium and Luxembourg, because they come from the same European directive. Only the national texts differ: the French consumer code, the Luxembourg consumer code as amended by the law of 30 November 2022, and the Belgian Code of Economic Law, book VI. If you are not established in France, refer to your own national law rather than to the French articles cited on this page.
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