Review Gating and 5-Star-Only Review Widgets

What people mean by review gating

Review gating is any practice that decides which reviews exist, or which reviews people see, based on how positive they are. It comes in two forms.

The first form is gating who you ask. A business screens its customers first, for example with a private feedback question, and invites only the happy ones to review it publicly. The unhappy ones are never asked, or are steered to a private form.

The second form is gating what you show. A business collects every review, then displays only the 4-star and 5-star ones, or only the 5-star ones, and presents the result as if it were the whole picture. A review widget that shows only 5-star reviews is this second form.

Both give a reader a picture of the business that is rosier than the one its customers describe. That is why platforms and regulators treat them as a problem.

What the rules say

These are the sources behind this guide. Each is linked at the bottom of the page.

United States: the FTC Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule

The rule is 16 CFR Part 465 and took effect on October 21, 2024. Section 465.7(b) makes it unlawful to materially misrepresent, expressly or by implication, that the reviews shown on a site represent most or all of the reviews submitted, when reviews have been suppressed based on their rating or sentiment. Reviews may still be removed for reasons that apply whatever the sentiment, such as fake, abusive, discriminatory or unrelated reviews. Separately, section 465.4 makes it unlawful to give compensation or other incentives conditioned, expressly or by implication, on a review expressing a particular sentiment. Civil penalties go up to $53,088 per violation, as adjusted in January 2025. The completeness provision is worded around reviews submitted to the website or platform that shows them, and there is no case law yet on how it applies to a widget that displays reviews from another platform. The risk it describes is the same either way: implying that a selection of reviews is all of them.

Sources: FTC final rule, 89 Federal Register 68077 (August 22, 2024) · 16 CFR Part 465, wording as currently in force (eCFR)

Google: its policy on prohibited and restricted content

Google's policy says a business must not "Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". This is a platform policy, not a law. It speaks to discouraging negative reviews and to asking only the customers you expect to be happy.

Sources: Google policy on prohibited and restricted content

European Union: the Omnibus Directive (2019/2161/EU)

The Directive amended the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and has applied since May 28, 2022. Its blacklist, which treats a practice as unfair in all circumstances with no need to show harm, bans submitting or commissioning false consumer reviews and "misrepresenting consumer reviews" in order to promote products. It also bans claiming that reviews come from consumers who actually used the product without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to check. A business that gives access to reviews must also say whether and how it checks that they come from real customers, and leaving that out can be a misleading omission.

Sources: Directive (EU) 2019/2161 (Omnibus Directive), EUR-Lex

United Kingdom: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024

Fake reviews have been a banned practice under Schedule 20, paragraph 13 since April 6, 2025. The banned practices include the misleading publication of consumer review information, and presenting a biased selection of reviews as if it were comprehensive is an example. The Act also puts duties on publishers of reviews, including review aggregators and widget platforms: keep a clear policy, assess the risk of banned reviews, and take reasonable and proportionate steps. The Competition and Markets Authority's guidance (CMA208) explains the approach.

Sources: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 · CMA208: fake reviews guidance (April 2025)

New Zealand: the Commerce Commission and the Fair Trading Act

The Commission's guidance says reviews must be genuine and presented in a way that does not mislead the reader about the overall view the reviewer meant to express. In 2019 a court fined the holiday-rental platform Bachcare NZD 117,000 for withholding every review rated below 3.5 out of 5 across 22% of its properties, finding that it created an artificially positive impression. In the Commission's TV Shop prosecution, which led to convictions in December 2025 (sentencing is pending), withholding low-rated reviews unless the reviewer answered a follow-up email was treated as part of the same misleading pattern.

Sources: New Zealand Commerce Commission: online reviews guidance · New Zealand Commerce Commission: TV Shop prosecution

In the places covered here, choosing which reviews to feature is not in itself the problem. The problem is presenting a selection as if it were all of them, and, in New Zealand, withholding reviews because of their rating, as the Bachcare case shows.

What honest display looks like

Whatever tool you use, these habits address the risks described above.

Do not remove or hide a review because of its rating or sentiment. Remove reviews only for reasons that apply equally to positive and negative ones, such as fake, abusive, discriminatory or unrelated content.
Say that you are showing a selection, and say how it was chosen, instead of implying that it is every review.
Show the real picture beside it: how many reviews there are in total, and a link to the full set on the source platform.
Let visitors see the lower ratings. A visitor should be able to pick any star rating and sort the lowest first.
Say where the reviews come from, for example that they are published on Google.
Ask every customer you have served in the same way, not only the ones you expect to be happy, and do not offer rewards for reviews.

How Laudiva's widget handles this

These describe what the product does. They are not a promise about how any business uses it.

Ranking measures quality, not positivity. The relevance score reflects how detailed, specific and helpful a review is, and not how positive it is.
No setting hides a review because of its rating. Reviews are removed only for reasons that apply whatever the sentiment, such as fake, abusive, discriminatory or unrelated content.
The default order reflects the real rating mix. Each page is filled in proportion to the star ratings of the reviews the widget holds, so a business whose reviews are mostly 5-star sees mostly 5-star reviews first, and one whose reviews are mostly 1-star sees mostly 1-star reviews first. Out of the box, reviews the owner has pinned lead the list, labelled as pinned. An owner can choose another order, and the line beneath the reviews names the order in use.
Where a widget shows the star filter, all five star ratings are always offered, including a rating with no reviews, which shows a count of zero. An owner can turn a filter group off, but cannot pre-select a rating or exclude one on a visitor's behalf.
Where a widget has a sort menu, a visitor can reverse the sort to see the lowest ratings first.
When a widget shows fewer reviews than it holds, a line beneath them says how many are shown out of how many it holds. That line also names the ordering used and links to a public page that explains how reviews are selected.
Where the Google listing's address is known, the widget includes a link to see all reviews there, and the editor does not let an owner delete it.

Asking for reviews

Laudiva's email review requests, available on Showcase, use fixed wording that is the same for every customer you choose to send it to. The wording never offers a reward, a discount or a gift, and never ties anything to a rating.

Who you send a request to is your decision. Asking everyone you have served, rather than only the customers you expect to be happy, is the approach that fits Google's policy.

How email review requests work

Sources

Information, not legal advice

This guide is general information about consumer-protection rules and platform policy. It is not legal advice, and it does not say that any particular widget, review request or business practice does or does not satisfy those rules. Laws differ by country and change over time, and your own conduct matters. Ask a qualified lawyer about your situation.

Review gating and 5-star-only widgets: what the rules say