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Removing a fake Google review: the process and its limits
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You report it from the Read reviews section of the business's Google profile, picking a reason the policy actually lists: the review, though, stays online if it does not break a specific rule, even when it feels unfair. If Google refuses and the content is genuinely false, a concrete route remains in Italy: a court injunction, which has already ordered removal at least once after Google's own first refusal.
How to report a review to Google
From the business profile on business.google.com, open the Read reviews section, select Report next to the review in question, choose a reason from the list on offer (spam or profanity, for example), and send the report. Businesses registered in a European Economic Area country also get the reviews management tool, which lets them report third-party reviews too, not only the ones left directly on their own listing (source: Google, Remove reviews from your Business Profile on Google, checked November 8, 2026).
Anyone, not only the business owner, can report a review, for instance from Google Maps: in the Reviews section, tap the three dots next to the text and pick a reason. That path is open to any reader who spots a review that clearly does not hold up, not just to whoever runs the business.
What counts as a violation, and what stays online even if it stings
Google applies the same prohibited and restricted content policies to reviews that it applies to photos, videos and posts on a Business Profile (source: Google, Overview of Google Business Profile policies, checked November 8, 2026). The line that separates the two cases is not how harsh the review is, but whether it describes something that actually happened.
| Type of review | Can it be reported to Google |
|---|---|
| Written by someone who was never a customer (fake engagement) | Yes |
| Posted in exchange for payment or a discount | Yes |
| Talks about a product or service the business does not offer (off-topic) | Yes |
| Accuses the business of a crime or wrongdoing without evidence | Yes |
| Negative but based on a real experience, even told harshly | No |
| States an unwelcome personal opinion, with no false facts | No |
The official policy page (source: Google, Prohibited and restricted content policies, checked November 8, 2026) lists, among others, these categories: fake engagement, meaning content not based on a genuine experience or incentivized reviews; impersonation, when the reviewer's profile pretends to be someone else; off-topic content, allowed only if it is about an experience at that specific business; and offensive content, which bans baseless accusations of illegal behavior while still leaving room for respectful negative criticism. When a business is found to have paid for or incentivized reviews systematically, Google can also restrict the profile itself, for example by temporarily blocking new reviews, on top of removing the ones that broke the rules (source: Google, Business Profile restrictions for policy violations, checked November 8, 2026).
What happens after you report it: timing, statuses and the appeal
The official page states that review usually takes several days, without a fixed deadline. Inside the reviews management tool, a report can sit in one of three statuses: decision pending, report reviewed with no policy violation found, or escalated, with a prompt to check your email for updates.
If the first report does not lead to removal, a one-time appeal is available: up to ten reviews can be selected at once, through a dedicated form. The outcome arrives by email: if the appeal confirms the violation, the review is removed; if it is found to comply with the policies, it stays published (source: Google, Remove reviews from your Business Profile on Google, cited above). Past that point, there is nothing left to do inside the platform itself.
When Google says no: the legal route that remains
Since 2024, liability for platforms that host content published by others, Google included, follows the EU Digital Services Act: article 6 exempts a hosting provider from liability for what users post, as long as it has no actual knowledge of it, and requires it to act expeditiously once that knowledge exists. In Italy, Legislative Decree 25 March 2024, n. 50 repealed the older 2003 rules on the same subject, specifically to align them with the European regulation (source: EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, checked November 8, 2026). That is also why a formal written notice, before going to court, is not a purely procedural step: it is the act that puts the actual knowledge of the illegal content on record, and that knowledge is what triggers the duty to act.
When a formal notice is not enough, a court has already stepped in for Google in Italy. In November 2022 the Court of Genoa, in an urgent injunction granted without first hearing Google, ordered the removal of several fake reviews against a Genoa restaurant and the restoration of its previous rating, after Google had rejected the direct request on the grounds that the reviews complied with its own guidelines. The ruling, as reported by the newspaper Il Giorno, described Google's conduct as unlawful and potentially liable for damages, precisely for not acting after an out-of-court request. The Liguria regional government, through its tourism minister, had also written to Google Italy asking for a review months earlier (source: Il Giorno, false recensioni Google condannata, checked November 8, 2026, original in Italian).
The balance cuts both ways. A review that states false facts can amount to defamation under article 595 of the Italian criminal code, with a right to damages under article 2043 of the civil code, but only when it reports facts that are not true, not when it expresses a severe judgment grounded in a real experience: harsh criticism stays lawful. The same applies in reverse, to whoever writes a review knowing it is false: in January 2025 a court convicted a restaurant's customer of defamation over a review posted on TripAdvisor that was found not to be truthful (source: Il Fatto Quotidiano, restaurant, negative TripAdvisor review, defamation, checked November 8, 2026, original in Italian). In either direction, whoever seeks damages still has to prove the concrete loss suffered: it is not enough that the review was published.
Beyond reputation, reviews also weigh on visibility: they count among the factors behind ranking on Google Maps, so a fake review left unreported hurts twice over. If the question instead is where to show genuine reviews, collected elsewhere, on your own site, I cover that in a website with company reviews: where to put them.
If you want a second opinion on a specific review, or more generally on how your business is handling its online reputation, the digital check-up looks at this too. Otherwise get in touch and we can look at the situation together.