Australian Consumer Law and Online Reviews: What Businesses Can and Can't Do
An ACCC-aligned guide to review gating, fake reviews, incentives and customer responses under Australian Consumer Law.
Online reviews are covered by the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), and the ACCC has been actively prosecuting businesses that bend the rules. Here's a clear, plain-English breakdown of what's legal — and what isn't.
What you CAN do
- Ask every customer for a review — there's no limit.
- Send automated review requests via SMS or email.
- Respond to reviews publicly (without revealing personal info).
- Report fake or defamatory reviews to Google for removal.
- Display reviews on your own website.
What you CANNOT do
- Write fake reviews of your own business or a competitor (heavy ACCC penalties).
- Pay or incentivise customers for a positive review specifically.
- 'Review gate' — only ask happy customers and screen out unhappy ones (this is misleading conduct).
- Edit, delete or hide genuine negative reviews from your own website.
- Threaten legal action to silence a reviewer over a genuine experience.
The review gating issue, explained
Review gating is when a business funnels happy customers to Google but redirects unhappy ones to a private feedback form. The ACCC and Google both consider this misleading. Compliant systems (like Altitude) ask all customers the same way and let them choose where to leave feedback.
About the author
Altitude Reputation Team
Australian Reputation Management Specialists
The Altitude Reputation team has helped hundreds of Australian service businesses grow their Google reviews, improve local rankings and turn customer feedback into a repeatable lead source.
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