When someone in Farmington or Unionville looks up your shop on Google, a box comes up with your address, your hours and the reviews customers left you. Google calls that box your Business Profile. Google gives you a link to ask for reviews. So ask every customer, the same way each time. But give nothing back for a Google review, not even a chance in a drawing. Google bans any reward at all.
What the law says. The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is the federal agency that enforces the law against unfair or deceptive business practices. Its rule on reviews took effect Oct. 21, 2024, and covers any website built to show reviews. It bans fake reviews. It bans rewards that depend on a review being good, or bad. It bans reviews by insiders who don’t disclose their tie to the business. Courts can fine a business that breaks the rule knowingly.
The rule does not ban asking. Asking everyone the same way even earns an exception. FTC staff give the example of a business that routinely emails every buyer for a review. If one of those buyers turns out to be an employee posting a false review, the business isn’t responsible.
Hints count. A reward for a good review is banned even when only hinted at. FTC staff give this example: “Tell us how much you loved your visit to John’s Steakhouse and get a $5 coupon.” An owner or manager who posts a review without saying they’re connected to the business breaks the rule. So does an owner who asks a spouse, parent, child, sibling or employee for a review, never tells them to mention the tie, and sees the review go up without it. The mention has to be easy to spot, but it can be short. FTC staff say a reviewer calling the product “my wife’s company’s” could be enough.
The FTC, Google and Yelp, the review website, all refuse a reward for a good review. They split on every other kind of reward, and on whether to ask at all:
- FTC: the rule doesn’t ban a reward that has no strings on whether the review is good or bad. But FTC staff warn that keeping such a reward quiet could break the agency’s wider law.
- Google: rewards for any review are “strictly prohibited.” Owners also may not pressure customers to review while they’re at the business, give staff review targets, or ask only the happy customers (No. 14 covers that one).
- Yelp: don’t ask anyone, family and friends included, and don’t offer freebies, discounts or payment. Yelp warns that asking may hurt your Yelp rating, since its software may not recommend reviews that look prompted.
Family and staff. This is where the FTC and Google split. Google’s rules for Maps say a conflict of interest may include working for the business, now or in the past, or being family. Google removes biased reviews from Maps. It doesn’t say whether mentioning the tie fixes that. Our advice: keep family and staff off your Google reviews.
What Google can do. If Google finds an owner breaking its rules against fake reviews, it removes those reviews. It might also block new reviews or hide existing ones for a set time, or warn customers that fake reviews were removed. Google emails the owner before any such limit, and the owner can appeal.
How to get your link. Use a computer. Google makes the review QR code, a square barcode customers scan with a phone, only in a computer browser. Open your Business Profile, choose Read Reviews, then Get more reviews, and select Copy to grab the link. To keep the QR code, right-click it and select Save image as. Google suggests receipts, thank-you emails, the end of a chat and a printed code in the store. Then reread any receipt, email or sign that asks for a review, and delete any promise attached.
The Standard: Ask every customer, the same way each time. On Google, give nothing back for a review, however small.
Source: FTC, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465), its staff Q&A and its August 2024 announcement; Google Business Profile Help and Maps content policy pages on requesting reviews, incentives and restrictions; Yelp Support, “Don’t Ask for Reviews”; read Sept. 25, 2026.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Ask every customer for a review; the boxes you can’t ask anything of can wait at Farmington Storage. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington long enough to know that nobody leaves a public comment for a free coffee. He buys his own, and is on his second. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town: Town Council and the land use boards, the police log, the schools, elections, and the businesses in Farmington and Unionville. Our motto is “Always last to breaking news,” and nobody has ever accused us of breaking it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell a neighbor. 📰