Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 23, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleItaly’s antitrust regulator has fined Trustpilot €4 million (approximately $4.61 million) for failing to sufficiently verify review authenticity and misleading consumers about how its services work.
March 23 (Reuters) - Italy's competition regulator has fined online review platform Trustpilot and its units 4 million euros ($4.6 million) for failing to adequately verify the authenticity of reviews and for misleading consumers about how their services work.
Shares fell 2.5% in early trade.
The fine, imposed on Monday, comes months after short seller Grizzly Research accused Trustpilot of creating fake profiles that gave negative reviews and then pressuring companies to pay for subscriptions - allegations which the company rejected.
The Italian Competition Authority said Trustpilot's review collection services allowed businesses to handpick which consumers received review invitations, undermining the representativeness of published ratings even when reviews were labelled as "verified" by the platform.
The watchdog also found that Trustpilot used interface design techniques typical of "dark patterns" to obscure key information about its platform's functioning and which businesses paid for services, in breach of Italy's consumer code.
Trustpilot did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Monday.
($1 = 0.8670 euros)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
Trustpilot was fined for failing to adequately verify the authenticity of reviews on its platform and misleading consumers about its services.
The fine was 4 million euros, which is approximately $4.61 million.
The fine was imposed by Italy's Competition Authority.
The authority found that Trustpilot misled consumers about review authenticity and how its services operated.
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