Business
Trustpilot to appeal AGCM finding
Trustpilot Group Plc will appeal a €4 million fine imposed by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) for an alleged breach of the Italian Consumer Code, which the company strongly disputes. Trustpilot asserts its robust review authenticity checks, including removing 7.8 million fake reviews in 2025, and uniform standards for all businesses, noting that in Italy, free businesses have an average TrustScore of 4.40 compared to 4.39 for paid businesses. The company also rejects the AGCM's characterisation of its interface as "dark patterns," emphasizing transparency and its commitment to commercial integrity, with its Italian business representing approximately 5% of Group revenue in 2025. Disclaimer*
About this update from Trustpilot Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nRegulatory Update\nTrustpilot Group Plc to appeal AGCM finding\nFurther to the update provided on 13 January 2026 regarding the allegation from the Italian Competition Authority (the AGCM), Trustpilot Group plc and its subsidiaries (\"Trustpilot\" or the \"Company\") notes that the AGCM has concluded its investigation and imposed a fine of €4 million, finding an alleged breach of the Italian Consumer Code relating to a single unfair commercial practice. \nWe strongly disagree with the finding and will robustly appeal. As the world's largest open customer feedback platform, we empower consumers with a trusted, transparent review ecosystem.\n· Robust review authenticity checks: Trustpilot's multi-layered fraud detection combines automation and human moderation. In 2025, we removed 7.8 million fake reviews which included 9% of total reviews submitted in the year.\n· Uniform standards: All businesses, whether free or paid, must comply with the same policies including strict prohibition on selective invitations. In Italy, average TrustScores are 4.39 for paid businesses vs 4.40 for active free businesses.\n· Clear interface design: Our product provides an extraordinary degree of transparency regarding business's engagement with Trustpilot. We reject the AGCM's \"dark patterns\" characterisation.\nOur detailed responses are below:\nCommitment to commercial integrity\n \nTrustpilot enables invitation methods to support businesses in collecting customer feedback. We have provided the AGCM with extensive data proving that these tools do not systematically inflate scores or favour paying customers, including:\n● Strict prohibition on \"cherry-picking\": We expressly ban review gating, also known as cherry-picking. Our guidelines prohibit businesses from only inviting happy customers, from incentivising reviews, as well as from using any kind of fake reviews.\n○ In line with our Action We Take policy, in 2025 we took action against 454 paying businesses and terminated the subscriptions of 121 specifically for review gating or fake review violations globally.\n○ We also enforce this rigorously through a team of c.200 people focused on ensuring trust ...