Reviews have become one of the most common elements on corporate websites. Opinions from satisfied customers, five-star ratings, or testimonials sharing a good experience with a product or service.
We use them to build trust, reinforce credibility, and help others make decisions. But there’s an issue many companies overlook: it’s not enough for reviews to be real. You also need to explain how they are collected, verified, and published.
A company can display authentic opinions from its customers and still not be correctly fulfilling the information obligations established by regulations.
Therefore, if you have reviews on your website, there are some issues you should check.
What does the law say about reviews on a website?
Since May 2022, Spanish regulations have incorporated specific transparency obligations regarding consumer reviews, following the transposition of European Directive 2019/2161, known as the Omnibus Directive.
Specifically, Article 20.4 of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users requires companies that provide access to reviews to inform whether they guarantee that these reviews come from people who have actually purchased or used the product or service. They must also explain how these opinions are processed.
What does this mean in practice?
It means that simply including a testimonials section on the website is not enough. Clear information must be provided on matters such as the origin of opinions, verification mechanisms, or the criteria used to select them.
The European Commission, in its guide on unfair commercial practices, specifies that this transparency also includes aspects such as the publication of positive and negative opinions, the calculation of average ratings, or the existence of incentivized reviews.
Furthermore, Law 10/2025, of December 26, has introduced modifications to the regulation of reviews, including a temporary provision of thirty days related to the acquisition or use of the product or service and the issuance of the rating. The application of this provision must be assessed according to the circumstances and type of service.
In short, it’s not just about what the reviews say, but about the information the company provides about these opinions.
Is it mandatory to verify customer reviews?
The answer is no, but it is mandatory to inform whether they are verified or not.
General regulations do not require all companies to necessarily check that every published opinion comes from a person who has purchased a product or contracted a service. What they require is transparency about this process.
This means that a company can publish reviews without having a verification system, as long as it clearly explains this circumstance and does not present them as opinions from verified real customers.
However, if a company claims that its reviews come from customers who have actually used its services, it must have adopted reasonable and proportionate measures to verify this.
For example, an online store can verify opinions using order numbers, while a service company can check the commercial relationship through its contracting records.
And what happens if none of these checks are performed? It must be communicated.
Not verifying a review is not, in itself, a breach of the general transparency obligation. The problem is not informing about it correctly or attributing an authenticity that has not been verified.
However, transparency does not authorize the publication of invented reviews or the manipulation of their content. These practices are prohibited by the Unfair Competition Law.
Can I select the reviews I publish on my website?
Imagine a company has received twenty customer opinions and decides to display only five on its homepage.
This is a very common practice, especially when reviews are used as commercial testimonials. And selecting opinions to highlight them is not, in itself, a prohibited practice.
However, there is an important difference between displaying a selection of testimonials and presenting this selection as if it represented all opinions received.
Regulations prohibit manipulating or distorting reviews for promotional purposes. This includes practices that can create a misleading impression about a business’s actual rating.
For example, it is not the same to highlight three positive experiences indicating they are selected testimonials as it is to display an overall five-star rating built exclusively from the most favorable opinions, passing it off as representative.
Transparency about selection criteria is, therefore, fundamental.
What information should you display alongside reviews?
There is no single template that all companies must incorporate into their website. The information must correspond to how each one collects and manages opinions.
However, there are five aspects worth reviewing:
- Origin: Do opinions come from Google, an external platform, a website form, or direct communications with customers?
- Verification: Is it checked that people have actually contracted or used the service? How is it done? If not verified, is this circumstance reported?
- Selection: Are all received reviews published, or only a portion?
- Moderation: Are there criteria for removing duplicate, offensive, or fraudulent opinions?
- Incentives: Has any review been obtained in exchange for discounts, gifts, or other benefits?
The European Commission’s guide recommends that this information be clear and accessible from the same space where reviews are displayed, for example, through a visible link.
Thus, instead of forcing the user to search for it among extensive legal texts, the website can incorporate a small link with text like “How do we manage reviews?”.
How to correctly publish reviews on your website?
Not all companies collect opinions in the same way. Some ask their customers directly, others obtain them through external platforms, and some have open forms for any user to leave a rating.
Therefore, there is no single informative text that works for all websites. The information must reflect how opinions are actually collected, verified, selected, and published.
Let’s look at three common situations.
Case 1. An online store that verifies opinions
A store sends an email to buyers after they receive their order to rate their experience. Since the opinions are linked to a purchase, it can verify that they come from real customers.
Furthermore, it publishes all ratings that meet moderation criteria, both positive and negative.
In this case, it could incorporate an informative text like this:
The published reviews come from customers who have made a purchase in our online store. We verify this relationship using the order number. We publish both positive and negative opinions, except those that violate our moderation criteria, such as offensive, duplicate, or fraudulent content.
Case 2. A service company that selects testimonials
A consultancy asks its clients for feedback after projects are completed. The company knows that these individuals have contracted its services, but decides to display only some testimonials on the homepage.
In this case, it is important to explain both the origin of the opinions and the fact that it is a selection.
The published opinions come from clients who have contracted our services. We verify this relationship through our internal records. The testimonials shown constitute a selection of the opinions received, chosen for their relevance to the services we offer. They do not represent the totality of our clients’ ratings.
Case 3. A restaurant that does not verify reviews
A restaurant has an open form on its website for users to share their experience. It does not request proof of consumption or check if the people providing opinions have actually visited the establishment.
Before publishing opinions, it only checks that they do not contain inappropriate content.
In this case, it should not claim that opinions come from verified customers, but rather clearly explain that it does not perform this check.
The published opinions are collected through an open form on our website. We do not verify that the people writing them have visited or consumed at our establishment. Reviews are subject to a review to detect offensive, duplicate, or fraudulent content. We cannot guarantee that all opinions come from real customers.
These three cases show that the most important thing is not to apply the same system to all companies, but to adequately inform how each one works.
The texts are indicative examples and must be adapted to the reality of each business. Transparency does not replace other legal obligations nor does it justify a selection or moderation that could be misleading.
The key is that the published information is clear, accessible, and consistent with how the company actually manages reviews.
Frequently Asked Questions about Review Regulations
Trust is also built with transparency
Reviews play an important role in the perception users form of a company. But trust does not depend solely on having good ratings, but also on how they are presented.
Explaining where opinions come from, how they are managed, and by what criteria they are published should not be seen only as a legal obligation. It is also a way to demonstrate professionalism and reinforce business credibility.
A well-developed website is not just one that has a good design or offers a good user experience. It is also one that communicates clearly, transparently, and responsibly.
