A notification lands: a new review on your Google profile. You open it and your stomach drops — one star and a text that simply isn't true. It describes an experience that never happened, or it flat-out insults you. You may even suspect who's behind it: an angry former employee, a competitor two streets over, or someone who confused you with a completely different business. And underneath that review sits your average rating, which just dropped because of it.
Most owners react in one of two ways: anger ("I'll tell them exactly what I think") or helplessness ("you can't do anything about Google anyway"). Neither helps. A fake review is handled step by step, with a cool head, in the right order — from the gentlest move to the toughest. This article walks you through that order. But right at the start I'll say one important thing so you don't go in with false expectations: there is no guaranteed or fast removal. Even when a review breaks the rules, Google may delete it — but doesn't have to — and when it does, it takes a while.
First, understand why such a review breaks the rules
Google has its own review policies, and plenty of fake ratings violate the most important one — the so-called conflict of interest. That means a review may not be written by someone connected to the business or benefiting from it. Specifically, reviews are prohibited from:
- the business owner (you can't praise yourself),
- current and former employees (yes, the angry review from someone you let go belongs here too),
- direct competitors (a competitor may not tank your rating with a negative review — nor boost their own with a fake positive one).
Google also tightened its rules in April 2026: it now explicitly forbids businesses from setting review quotas for staff ("everyone leaves five stars"), and it bans so-called scripted reviews, where a prepared template puts a specific employee's name into the text. Put simply: a review is meant to be the honest opinion of a real customer, not a homework assignment for the staff.
Why is this good news for you? Because if you can show a review falls into one of these categories, you have a clear argument for reporting it. A false review (describing something that never happened) and an insulting or hateful review break the rules as well. That's the foundation the whole defense is built on.
Step 1: Reply factually — not for the author, but for everyone else
It may sound odd as the first step, but it's the most important: reply to the review publicly. Not because you'll convince the author (usually you won't), but because your reply will be seen by dozens of other people who are choosing your business. And they decide precisely by how you handle criticism.
A few rules to follow:
- Never argue. A calm, polite, factual tone always looks better than an angry business.
- Set the record straight without emotion. For example: "Hello, we can't find such an order in our records. If you truly were our customer, please get in touch at… we'll be glad to look into it." This makes clear to other readers that the review doesn't add up — and you come across as a business with nothing to hide.
- Careful in sensitive fields. If you work in healthcare, or as a lawyer, psychologist and so on, do not publicly confirm that the person is or was your client or patient — you'd breach confidentiality and data protection (GDPR). Reply generally, along the lines of "we treat our patients individually, please contact us privately."
A factual reply is often enough. A reasonable reader can tell which side is the more sympathetic one. And for how to look after your entire business profile professionally, I go into more detail in the most common Google Business Profile mistakes.
Step 2: Report the review to Google
If the review is clearly fake or breaks the rules, report it. Right on the review (through your business profile) you'll find three dots or a "Report review" option. Google asks what type of violation it is.
The key here is to choose the right reason and know which rule the review breaks. Not "I don't like it," but specifically:
- it's a conflict of interest (a review from an employee, former employee or competitor),
- the review is false / misleading (it describes an event that didn't happen),
- it contains insults, profanity or hateful content.
The more specific your reason, the better. But be prepared that the decision takes days to weeks and that Google sometimes leaves the review up on the first try. It's worth reporting again later, or contacting Business Profile support. Let me repeat the essential point: reporting is no guarantee of removal. Google also protects people's right to post negative experiences — and it has to judge for itself whether a review is genuinely fake or merely critical.
Step 3: When reporting doesn't help — a formal notice to the author
Here we move out of the "online" world and into law, and I want to be honest: from this step onward we're talking about a last resort, not a first reaction. Most business owners never get here, and that's a good thing.
If a review demonstrably harms the business, is untrue, and Google leaves it up, the next step is usually a pre-litigation notice to the author — an official letter (ideally from a lawyer) calling on the author to take the false review down and warning of possible legal consequences. Sometimes that alone is enough, because the person realizes an "anonymous" review may not be so anonymous after all.
Step 4: The last resort — court or a criminal complaint
When even the notice doesn't work, the legal path remains. But I want you to see it as the final instance — it's demanding in both time and money, and it's certainly not something you launch over one annoying star. For completeness, so you know what tools Czech law offers:
- Defamation (Section 184 of the Criminal Code). When someone spreads a false claim about your business that could seriously damage it, it can amount to the criminal offense of defamation. The penalty can be up to one year, and because a Google review is spread "by press, film, radio, television, publicly accessible computer network" — that is, the internet — the sentence can reach up to two years. It's pursued via a criminal complaint.
- Unfair competition (Commercial Code). If a competitor is behind the fake review, it typically qualifies as unfair competition. This also covers fake positive reviews a competitor uses to polish their own profile. Here you can file a civil suit and demand that the other side stop the conduct (an injunction) and remove the offending content.
- Unfair commercial practice and the Trade Inspection. Manipulating reviews is also an unfair commercial practice toward consumers — and the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (ČOI) can impose a fine for it.
I'll stress it again: this is the heaviest caliber. Before you reach for it, consult a lawyer on whether it's even worth it. Steps 1 and 2 resolve most cases.
And what if you're tempted to write reviews yourself?
I have to mention the other side of the coin — because defending against fake reviews and keeping your own profile honest go hand in hand. Once you see how easily a review can cause harm, you might think "well, I'll just add a few nice reviews myself to even it out." Don't.
A fake positive review — whether you write it yourself, have family write it, or "assign" it to employees — breaks Google's rules exactly like a defamatory one. And if you're luring customers away from a competitor with it, it's once again unfair competition. You risk Google discrediting your whole profile or wiping out ratings you spent years honestly building.
The only path that works long term is to earn genuine reviews from genuinely satisfied customers. After finishing a job, ask, send a direct review link, make it easy. Real reviews aren't just allowed — they're far more convincing, because they sound human. For how to do this systematically, see the most common Google Business Profile mistakes.
Summary: move from soft to hard
When a fake, defamatory or employee review lands, don't panic — go step by step:
- Reply — factually, calmly, mainly for the other readers (and in healthcare, without confirming the person is a client).
- Report — to Google, with a specific reason (conflict of interest / falsehood). Removal is neither guaranteed nor fast.
- Notify the author — with a pre-litigation notice, if the review demonstrably harms the business.
- Legal path — defamation or unfair competition, as a last, final resort.
And above all: the best defense against a few fake reviews is a pile of real ones. A single false star nearly vanishes in a sea of genuinely happy customers.
If you're not sure how to set up your business profile and overall online reputation so more people see you and the occasional bad review doesn't dent your world, I'm happy to take a look. Have a look at SEO and local visibility or online marketing, or drop me a line via the free mini audit — I'll go through your profile and website and send you a few concrete tips, no strings attached. And if you're still figuring out whether your website is even in good shape, start with how to spot a bad website.