Why a discount for a five-star review is no longer worth the risk
The US regulator has just fined a company whose reviews included ones written by its own staff and by customers given a discount. Google's rules say the same for every business, everywhere. Here is what is allowed and what is not.
The short version
Asking for a review is fine. Rewarding one is not. Google's Maps policy bans offering payment, discounts or free goods for any review (Google Maps content policy), and in the United States the FTC has just ordered a company to pay $750,000 partly over incentivised and employee-written reviews (FTC, July 2026). A plain ‘tell us how we did’ card with a QR code is allowed. Staff and family must not post. If a star rating shows on your website, the reviews behind it must be real and any reward disclosed.
A card by the till that says ‘a discount on your next visit for a five-star review’ looks harmless. It has been against Google's rules for years. In the United States it is now the kind of thing a regulator collects money over.
In July 2026 the Federal Trade Commission finalised an order against a supplement company whose reviews, the complaint said, came from its own employees and vendors and from customers offered a free product or a discount for five stars. The practices in that complaint are the ones a café, a salon or a clinic drifts into without ever thinking of them as fraud.
This article sets out Google's rule, which applies in every market, and the US law behind it, then what a small business should do instead. If your listing is not set up yet, start with the Business Profile guide and come back to reviews last.
Asking is allowed. Rewarding is not.
Google's rule on this for reviews on Maps is one line long. Under the heading ‘Fake engagement’, merchants and users may not “Offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services - in exchange for posting any review or revision or removal of a negative review” (Google Maps content policy). That covers a discount, a free coffee, a raffle entry and a bonus for the staff member who collects the most reviews. It also covers paying someone to take a bad review down.
Note what the rule does not say. It does not say you cannot ask. A card on the counter, a line at the bottom of the invoice, a message the day after the job: all fine, as long as nothing is offered in return and nothing depends on how many stars the customer gives.
A discount on the next visit for a five-star review
A card that says ‘Tell us how we did’ with a QR code to your review link
A free dessert for anyone who shows a review on their phone
A line on the receipt asking for an honest review
Paying a reviewer to remove a one-star review
Replying to the one-star review in public, politely
A staff bonus for the most reviews collected
Staff handing the card to customers who seem pleased
The rule applies wherever Google Maps works. It is not a US thing. What the United States adds is a regulator with the power to make a business pay, and it has started using it.
In the United States, the regulator is acting on incentivised reviews.
In July 2026 the Federal Trade Commission finalised an order against Vanilla Chip LLC, which trades as TruHeight, and its two principals. They must pay $750,000 and are barred from “using fake or incentivized consumer reviews” (FTC, July 2026).
The complaint, filed in April 2026, alleged the company “relied on reviews that were written by their own employees and vendors, or by consumers who were offered a free product or discount in return for writing a 5-star review”. Read that sentence again with a shop or a clinic in mind. Staff reviews, supplier reviews, and a discount for five stars. Those are the three habits a small business is most likely to have without calling any of them a fake review.
The order also bars “buying consumer reviews conditioned on a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative”. So the problem is not only the reward. It is tying the reward to the rating. The Commission voted 2-0 to finalise the order. The rule behind it is the FTC’s rule on the use of consumer reviews and testimonials, which bars buying reviews conditioned on their sentiment and carries civil penalties (16 CFR Part 465).
Fake listings are being pursued in the same way. In May 2026 the Department of Justice, acting for the FTC, and the state of Illinois sued Chicago-based Premium Home Service and its owner for fraudulently creating thousands of business listings for fake local home repair businesses (FTC, 11 May 2026). If you are a plumber or an electrician losing work to listings that do not exist, that is the kind of case now being brought.
If you are in India, Ireland or the euro area, the FTC has no reach over you. Google's rule still does. Reviews that break its policy can be removed, and Google does not need a court to do it.
Star ratings on your own website carry the same rule.
If your website shows a star rating next to your name in Google search, the reviews behind it are covered too. Google's guidance for those review snippets now says: “Don't include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on your page or in your structured data markup.” Its examples are reviews “that aren't based on a genuine experience of a product or service” and reviews “written in exchange for a benefit (such as money, discounts, vouchers, or free products) that don't clearly disclose it” (Google Search Central). The wording was added in July, as Search Engine Roundtable reported at the time (Search Engine Roundtable, 27 July 2026).
In practice this is about the testimonial strip or review widget your web designer added. Many small sites carry one, sometimes wired up so that Google can show stars under the listing in search. Two questions. Are those reviews from real customers, with their permission? And if any of them received something for it, does the page say so? If the honest answer to either is no, take the widget down until it is fixed.
The safe version is dull and works: pull real Google reviews through, or quote customers by name with their consent, and never show a rating the reviews do not support.
Try this now
Open your homepage and find any stars, testimonials or ‘rated five stars’ line. For each one, write down which customer it came from and whether they were given anything. Any entry you cannot fill in is the one to remove.
If someone offers to ‘get you reviews’, ask how.
Marketing companies sell review growth, and some of them get it by breaking the rules above. The question to ask is where the reviews will come from. If the answer is a reward, a giveaway, a ‘review exchange’ with other businesses, or a batch of accounts the company controls, walk away. In Google's eyes those reviews are yours, and so is whatever follows.
The same goes for people you did not pay. A cousin who has never been in the shop, a supplier who wants to keep the account, an employee on a quiet afternoon. The TruHeight complaint named employees and vendors specifically (FTC, July 2026). None of them is a customer, and a review from any of them is a fake review however kindly it was meant.
Google is also watching the pace. Since late September it has been emailing owners and pausing new reviews for a few days when it spots a spike in spam reviews (Search Engine Roundtable, 22 Sept 2026). A rush of genuine reviews in one afternoon could look like a spike, though Google has not said so. The detail is in the article on this autumn's listing changes; the short version is to ask a few customers at a time, not everyone at once.
What to do instead.
Ask every pleased customer, plainly, and offer nothing. The card on the right of the cover picture is the whole method: a line that says ‘Tell us how we did’, a QR code that opens your review link, and no mention of stars or rewards. The article on asking for reviews covers the wording, the timing and where to put the link.
Reply to the reviews you get, including the bad ones. A calm public reply to a one-star review is what the next reader remembers, and it is the one thing you can do about a bad review that no policy forbids.
If a company is already handling your reviews, ask it in writing where they come from and keep the answer. If a staff member or relative has posted one, ask them to delete it. Neither step is pleasant. Both are cheaper than the alternative.
- Nothing is offered for a review: no discount, no free item, no prize draw, no staff bonus.
- Nothing depends on the number of stars. Customers are asked for an honest review, not a five-star one.
- No employee, supplier, relative or friend has posted a review of the business.
- Nobody has been paid to remove or change a review.
- Every star rating or testimonial on the website comes from a real customer, and any reward is stated on the page.
- Any marketing company handling reviews has explained, in writing, where the reviews come from.
- Review requests go out a few at a time, not all at once.
- Every review, good or bad, gets a short public reply.
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A few common questions.
Can I still ask customers for a review?
Yes. Asking is allowed everywhere. What is not allowed is offering anything in return, or making the request depend on the rating. A card, a line on the invoice or a message after the job is fine as long as it asks for an honest review and promises nothing.
What if I give the discount to everyone who reviews, good or bad?
It is still against Google's Maps policy, which bans offering an incentive for posting any review, not only a positive one. The rating the customer gives does not change that. Drop the discount and keep the request.
My staff are genuinely customers too. Can they leave a review?
Do not let them. The FTC complaint against TruHeight named reviews written by the company's own employees and vendors as part of the problem. A review from someone who works for the business is not a customer's review, whatever they bought. It helps nobody and puts the listing at risk.
A marketing company says it can get me a lot of reviews quickly. Is that safe?
Ask it, in writing, where the reviews will come from. If the answer involves rewards, giveaways, review exchanges or accounts the company controls, it is breaking the rules on your behalf and the listing that suffers will be yours. A company that only helps you ask real customers is fine.
I am in Ireland, India or the euro area. Does the FTC case apply to me?
The FTC order only reaches businesses in the United States, and this article does not cover consumer law in Ireland, the EU or India, each of which has its own rules on fake reviews. Google's Maps policy applies wherever Google Maps works, and it bans the same thing: offering payment, discounts or free goods for a review. The practical rule is the same in every market.
My website shows a five-star badge from a plugin. Is that a problem?
Only if the reviews behind it are not real or were rewarded without saying so. Google's guidance on review snippets now names fake and undisclosed incentivised reviews as things not to include on your page. If you cannot say where each review came from, take the badge down until you can.
