Asking your techs to leave reviews is now a federal penalty risk
Most of what the FTC's reviews rule prohibits is something a well-meaning contractor already does: a gift card for a five-star review, a manager posting under their own name, a bad review quietly buried. The penalty ceiling is $51,744 per violation.
What the rule is, and when it started
The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials took effect on 21 October 2024. Unlike guidance, a rule lets the Commission seek civil penalties — currently up to $51,744 per violation — plus consumer redress.
"Per violation" is the phrase to sit with. It is not per campaign.
The six prohibited categories
- Fake or false reviews and testimonials. Reviews from people who do not exist, or who never used the service. AI-generated reviews are named explicitly. Creating, buying or disseminating them all count.
- Paid reviews with a required sentiment. Offering compensation or incentives in exchange for a review expressing a particular sentiment — positive or negative. The offer can be express or implied. A $50 gift card "for a five-star review" is the textbook case.
- Insider reviews without disclosure. Reviews from officers, managers, employees or their relatives that fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose the material connection.
- Suppression of negative reviews. Using unfounded legal threats, intimidation or false accusations to get a negative review taken down.
- Company-controlled review sites presented as independent.
- Fake social media indicators — purchased followers, views or engagement, where it matters commercially.
What contractors actually get wrong
Almost nobody in this industry is running a review farm. The exposure comes from three habits that feel harmless.
The incentive with a number attached. Asking for a review is fine. Asking for a five-star review in exchange for anything is the prohibited version. The fix is one word: ask for a review, not for a rating.
The office manager's review. Written with genuine good intent, from a real account, about work the company genuinely did well — and undisclosed. That is category three.
The legal threat over one bad review. Understandable and now specifically enumerated. Respond publicly, dispute through the platform, or let it stand. Do not send a letter designed to frighten.
A compliant review programme, in five lines
- Ask every customer, not the happy ones. Selective solicitation is a separate problem and it also produces a rating nobody believes.
- Never tie an incentive to sentiment or star count. If you incentivise at all, incentivise the act of reviewing, identically for everyone, and disclose it.
- Disclose insider connections in the review itself, not in a policy document.
- Answer negative reviews in public. A calm, specific reply outperforms a deleted review with prospects, and it carries no legal exposure.
- Write it down and train it once. The people generating exposure are your techs and your front desk, and nobody has ever told them any of this.
Worth saying plainly: reviews remain one of the highest-leverage assets a local contractor has. Nothing here argues for asking less. It argues for asking in a way that does not carry a five-figure number attached to it.