Most people use review sites the way they use traffic lights. Green = go, red = no, yellow = some quibble in the comments about parking. What almost nobody does is read the operating manual for the traffic lights. This page is the operating manual.
A consumer review platform looks like a utility — neutral, factual, public. The business model is rarely that simple. Most major review platforms are paid for, in whole or in part, by the businesses being reviewed.
That’s not, by itself, sinister. Yelp’s pages are free to read. Trustpilot’s basic profile is free to claim. Google Maps doesn’t charge anyone to leave a review. The money comes in further up the funnel — from invitation tools, paid widgets, premium subscriptions, lead generation fees and reputation management features.
The single most useful question to ask of any review platform is: who is the customer here, and what are they paying for? That answer reframes the rest of the small print.
Three broad models, each with very different consequences:
1. Open posting. Anyone can post about anyone, with or without proof of purchase. Trustpilot, Google Reviews, Tripadvisor, Yelp, Facebook Recommendations and Glassdoor sit closer to this end. Wider net, more noise, more disputes.
2. Invitation-only / closed-loop. The business sends a unique link to a real customer after a real transaction. Feefo and eKomi sit closer to this end. Cleaner verification, narrower sample, and the business decides who gets invited.
3. Marketplace-attached. Reviews are tied to a transaction inside the platform. Amazon, Checkatrade, Rated People and MyBuilder sit here. The reviewer is verified — but the platform is also the venue for the sale, which is a different conflict to manage.
“Verified” is one of the most over-loaded words on the modern internet. Each platform defines it differently, and the definition is usually three clicks deep.
It might mean:
Whenever a platform shows a “verified” tick, the only safe assumption is that it satisfied that platform’s specific definition. Read the definition.
The little widget on the website footer — gold star, green tick, blue shield — is a marketing product. The business pays a subscription, the badge appears, the conversion rate goes up.
That doesn’t make badges useless. A badge often does represent a real relationship with a review platform, and removing it after misuse can be a real consequence. But a badge is, structurally, a paid placement. It is not the same thing as accreditation by an independent body. Some schemes (Which? Trusted Traders is the clearest UK example) do involve actual vetting on top of the badge — most of the others involve a great deal less than the typography suggests.
Almost every major platform allows businesses to:
This is the legitimate operating manual. None of it is hidden. All of it has a price list.
The interesting questions sit at the boundary between marketing and moderation. For example:
None of this is, in itself, illegal or unique to review platforms. It is, however, the structural reason a five-star average online doesn’t always match the experience of every customer.
Three habits worth keeping:
Consumer review information is covered by general UK consumer protection law, including the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 framework, and the Competition and Markets Authority has published guidance on fake and incentivised reviews. The platforms themselves are not regulated as a single named industry.
Posting a review without disclosing that you were paid for it is treated as a misleading commercial practice under UK consumer protection rules. Properly disclosed incentives can be lawful, but the disclosure has to be clear and prominent.
A review platform aggregates customer feedback. An accreditation body actively vets a business against published criteria — qualifications, insurance, complaints record. Some schemes do both. Most don't.
Usually because the high-count business is using the platform's invitation tools — often as part of a paid tier — and the low-count one isn't. Volume is largely a function of effort and budget, not popularity.
Neither, on its own. But both contain information that a four- or five-star average tends to flatten. Read the texture.