Proposed new rules in Italy to combat false reviews of hotels and restaurants

On 14 January 2025, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a draft law which affects small and medium-sized enterprise and includes including specific provisions aimed at “combating false reviews” in the hospitality and tourism sectors.

The newly proposed rules are specifically intended to regulate the publication of online reviews relating to products, benefits and services offered by catering companies and tourist facilities located in Italy, including hotels, restaurants and spa/wellness facilities. They also relate to any form of tourist attraction offered on the Italian territory, with the aim of protecting consumers from the influence of fake reviews.

These provisions focus on identifying the users submitting the reviews and verifying that the reviews are reliable and come from consumers who have actually used or purchased the relevant products, benefits or services.

The main points are as follows:

• a consumer who proves their identity and actual use of the relevant services or benefits may issue a reasoned review within 15 days from the date of use of the product or service. To prevent fraudulent activity, the review must be sufficiently detailed and relevant to the type of product used or the characteristics of the facility offering it;
• the legal representative of the reviewed facility or their delegate has the right to respond and request the removal of reviews, if the author has not used the reviewed product or service, or if the reviews are misleading, false, or exaggerated;
• businesses may be also entitled to require the removal of reviews that are no longer relevant, either due to the lapse of 2 years from the date the service was used by the reviewer or because, after the review was posted, actions were taken to address or resolve the issues that led to the review;
• the purchase and sale of reviews, likes, or interactions for any reason whatsoever, including between entrepreneurs and intermediaries, will be prohibited, regardless of their subsequent dissemination; 
• it will be also prohibited to attribute consumer reviews to a product or service other than the one being reviewed, as well as to promote or influence the content of reviews through incentives.

The draft law also provides for the issuance of a regulation by the Italian Communications Authority (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni - AgCom) providing for the adoption of codes of conduct by intermediaries and entities active in the dissemination of online reviews. 

Such codes of conduct will identify measures to effectively prevent the distortion of information provided to consumers through fake reviews. These measures include, verifying the identity of the consumer submitting the review, ensuring that published reviews come from consumers who have genuinely used the product or service and regulating the removal of reviews to prevent unjustified deletions.

In addition, the Italian Competition and Market Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato- AGCM) will be adopting specific guidelines to assist companies in adopting appropriate measures to ensure the authenticity of reviews.

There are several areas where further clarity is required. For example, whilst the draft law is primarily focused on small and medium-sized enterprise, there are no size criteria laid down as to exactly which businesses fall within the scope of the proposed new rules. 

Additionally, it is unclear how the draft law will interact with existing regulations regarding online reviews previously introduced it in the Italian Consumer Code with the transposition of Directive (EU) 2019/2161. The draft law specifies the new prohibitions are subject to the existing Italian Consumer Code provisions, but it is unclear how this can be applied with consistency and there could be grey areas.

More generally, it will not be easy to determine the practical application of the new provisions and the concrete measures to be implemented according to the criteria outlined in the draft text. Hotels and hospitality businesses will be watching closely for clarification of the scope of application of the proposed new rules and how they will be implemented.

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