Can a business stop customers from posting bad reviews?

Ascent Vision · Published October 24, 2026

Not with a standard contract term. The FTC's business guidance says the Consumer Review Fairness Act makes it illegal for a company to use a standard contract term that bars or restricts honest reviews, charges a penalty or fee for one, or makes reviewers give up intellectual property rights in their reviews. A business can still remove some content it hosts, report reviews that break a site's rules and reply. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

What the FTC says the law bans

The FTC's business guide to the Consumer Review Fairness Act, dated February 2017, says the law protects "a broad variety of honest consumer assessments", including online reviews, social media posts, uploaded photos and videos, and evaluations of a company's customer service. In the FTC's summary, the law makes it illegal for a company to use a contract provision that:

Bars or restricts a person who is party to the contract from reviewing the company's products, services or conduct.
Imposes a penalty or fee on someone who gives a review.
Requires people to give up their intellectual property rights in the content of their reviews.

What it does not do

The FTC's guide says the law doesn't apply to employment contracts or agreements with independent contractors. It also says a business may prohibit or remove a review that contains confidential or private information, is libelous, harassing, abusive, obscene or otherwise inappropriate in ways the guide lists, is unrelated to the company's products or services, or is clearly false or misleading.

The FTC adds a caution: it is "unlikely that a consumer's assessment or opinion with which you disagree" meets the clearly false or misleading standard. As general advice, that removal right matters most for reviews a business hosts itself; on Google, removal follows Google's policies, and choosing which reviews to show on your own website is covered in the related answer on putting customer reviews on your website. This is a plain summary, not legal advice.

Who enforces it

The FTC says Congress gave enforcement authority to the FTC and the state Attorneys General, and that a company in violation could face financial penalties and a federal court order. Its checklist for businesses: review your form contracts, including online terms and conditions, and remove any provision that restricts honest reviews, penalizes them or claims copyright over them.

Other routes that are closed

An owner cannot switch off Google reviews, as the related answer on turning off Google reviews explains. The FTC's review rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, separately bars groundless legal threats, physical threats or intimidation, and false accusations made knowingly or with reckless disregard used to stop or remove a review; the related answer on getting a fake Google review removed covers it. Google strictly prohibits offering incentives in exchange for changing a review or removing a negative one. A demand for payment to remove bad reviews is covered in the related answer on review extortion.

What to do instead

As general advice, reply calmly, fix what can be fixed and keep asking every customer for a review, so one bad review sits among many honest ones; the related answers on responding to a negative Google review and on getting more reviews the right way cover how. Whether a review justifies legal action is a question for a lawyer.

Sources

SEO for service businesses

Get found on Google by the people already looking for what you sell, in the places you serve, and see which searches turned into inquiries.

See the service Work with us