Google review rules in Australia: what’s allowed, what gets you suspended

Collecting Google reviews in Australia sits under three sets of rules at once: Google’s own review policies, the Australian Consumer Law (enforced by the ACCC), and the Spam Act 2003 (enforced by ACMA) if you’re asking by text or email. None of them are hard to follow, but breaking them can cost you your Google profile or a proper fine, so it’s worth knowing where the lines are.

This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. If you’re unsure about your specific setup, talk to a lawyer.

Google’s rules come down to one idea: reviews must be real experiences from real customers. Specifically banned:

• Fake engagement. Reviews from people who never used the business, reviews written by staff or family, reviews written by the business itself, bought reviews from review farms.
• Incentivised reviews. Offering money, discounts, gifts, or competition entries in exchange for a review. Even “leave a review and get 10% off next time” counts.
• Review gating. Filtering customers so only happy ones ever see the review link, while unhappy ones are quietly hidden away. Checking satisfaction first is fine (and smart); the line is whether unhappy customers are still free to review if they want to.

Break these and Google can remove the reviews, suspend your Business Profile, or both. A suspended profile is a genuine business emergency for most local businesses.

The ACCC treats fake and incentivised reviews as misleading conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, the same law that bans false advertising. Businesses have been fined for writing their own reviews, paying for them, and for publishing testimonials they knew weren’t genuine. The ACCC actively sweeps review platforms and takes complaints from competitors.

If you ask by SMS or email, the Spam Act adds two requirements: the person needs to have a genuine relationship with your business (a real customer you actually served qualifies, a bought list does not), and every message needs a working way to opt out, honoured immediately. Send a review request to someone who never dealt with you and you’re in spam territory.

None of this makes asking hard. All of these are above board:

• Asking every customer for a review, happy or not.
• Texting or emailing the ask to customers you’ve genuinely just served.
• Sending a direct link that opens your review form in one tap.
• One polite reminder to someone who didn’t respond.
• Checking “how’d we go?” first, so complaints reach you privately and quickly, as long as unhappy customers can still review if they choose to.
• Replying to reviews, good and bad, like a professional.

The profiles that get suspended almost never trip on an honest mistake. They get caught buying fifty reviews from an overseas farm, running “review us and win” promos, or using gating tools that promise to hide negative feedback. All three feel like shortcuts. All three are the fastest way to lose the reviews you already had.

The boring approach, ask every real customer, make it one tap, follow up once, is also the one that keeps working year after year.

We only message customers you vouch for, with a logged consent trail per job. Each customer gets one request and one follow-up, never more. STOP works instantly and permanently. We never write reviews, never offer incentives, and the 1 to 5 check-in invites everyone to respond honestly, unhappy customers get a private feedback form, not a gag. The full breakdown is on our compliance page.