Paying someone to write a fake review will become a criminal act under proposed new laws aiming to protect the public from rogue traders.
Websites that act as host to such reviews may also be criminally liable, unless they take “reasonable steps” to check the reviews are genuine, ministers said.
According to reports from The Times , the proposed new laws may mean businesses such as Trustpilot , Amazon and Tripadvisor having to outline what they have done in order to stop companies from exploiting their systems.
