Product Reviews in E-Commerce
Product reviews are written accounts and star ratings submitted by buyers about a product and shown on the product page, in Google Shopping or on marketplaces. They provide trust and decision signals for new buyers and are increasingly drawn on by AI search assistants as a source for purchase recommendations. In legal terms they are not merely a marketing instrument: under the annex to the Austrian UWG (item 23b, in this version since 2022) it is always unfair to present reviews as coming from consumers who actually bought or used the product without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to verify that origin; item 23c extends the same prohibition to faked or commissioned reviews.
In practice
What matters is an active process: automated review requests after delivery, a low barrier to entry (stars plus optional text) and a visible, professional response to negative reviews all noticeably raise the response rate. Star ratings in search results are marked up technically with the Review or AggregateRating schema – although Google expressly awards no stars for LocalBusiness and Organization where the organisation itself controls the reviews written about it; that restriction does not apply in the same way to product reviews on product pages. Beyond that, shops should allow genuine customer photos, since user-generated images on product pages can further support the buying decision. Plan the verification step in from the start: if your shop presents reviews as customer voices, you need a traceable match against a real order — a personalised invitation link sent after delivery, for example — and you should be able to document how that match works. Bought or commissioned reviews fall directly under item 23c. Systematically suppressing negative reviews, or carrying reviews over from other product variants, is instead assessed under the general prohibitions on misleading practices in the UWG – equally open to injunctive proceedings, but along a different line of analysis. Clarify both with your legal advisers in advance.