A marketing firm which wrote more than 800 fake online reviews for clients including car dealers, mechanics and landscape gardeners has been ordered to take them down after a competition probe.
Total SEO wrote the reviews for 86 small businesses that were published across 26 different websites, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said.
It is the first time the CMA has acted over fake online reviews although it stopped short of using its powers to issue a fine or disqualify directors.
Instead it said that the firm, registered in Dorking, Surrey – which has co-operated with the investigation – had made legal undertakings to stop the practice and take down the fake reviews it had already put up.
The CMA has also written to Total SEO's clients to warn them that third parties writing fake reviews might mean them breaking the law themselves.
Nisha Arora, the CMA's senior director for consumers, said: "Our enforcement action against Total SEO makes clear that posting fake reviews about clients is unacceptable."
The CMA has also produced a written explanation for firms warning them that writing or commissioning fake reviews could lead to civil or criminal action.
Total SEO said it had offered online review writing and publication for clients "for a relatively short period of time".
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