A new consumer law around reviews came into force on April 6th, 2025.
The implementation of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (‘DMCCA’) impacts all reviews and needs to be fully complied with by July 5th.
HomeViews and Rightmove are taking steps to achieve full compliance, but there are also requirements for Partners and other companies collecting reviews. Potential financial repercussions are significant for organisations found to be in breach, with fines up to 10% of annual turnover (read the Act in full here).
This legislation is intended to ensure that consumers are not misled, such as through fake reviews, and that businesses are transparent.
Here we highlight some key points from the new legislation and explain changes we have made in order to comply.
1. Take steps to ensure no fake reviews are published
Verified reviews have always been at the heart of what HomeViews does. We have historically taken significant steps to ensure reviews are verified and that only genuine resident experiences are shared on HomeViews. We feel confident that the processes we already have in place ensure we comply with this requirement. We will be taking more steps to make it even clearer when a review is not verified.
2. If an incentive is offered, it must be made apparent
Many of our partners offer residents an incentive to write a review. This is allowed, as long as it is offered to all residents and not linked to a rating.
NEW: From the 5th of July, all reviews where an incentive was offered will have the following wording published next to them:
3. Tracking incentives being offered
While we can track promotions set up through our website, we are not always aware when Partners run their own competitions or prize draws.
NEW: When we have set up a promotion on HomeViews, we will automatically disclose that an incentive was offered. This will be done for all historical reviews on HomeViews.
New: In many instances we are not aware of a promotion taking place, for example a prize set up for a hamper. Going forward, we will ask residents on their review forms if they were offered an incentive to write the review so we can disclose this.
4. We must not publish reviews in a misleading manner
The guidance says that a ‘misleading manner’ includes ‘giving greater prominence to positive consumer reviews over negative ones.’ One of the marketing features we have offered Partners is a ‘pinned review’ on the HomeViews site, where a review can be highlighted and pinned to the top of the reviews page.
NEW: HomeViews will be removing the pinned review feature.
As a final reminder, this not only applies to HomeViews but to every business that collects and displays reviews. Please ensure that you are inviting ALL residents to write a review, not incentivising positive reviews, and ensuring only genuine residents are writing reviews.
We very much welcome this new legislation as it will benefit and protect both businesses and consumers by providing trusted data and insights from reviews.