Since 7 April 2026, Italy has had a law on online reviews, the first in Europe, according to the government. The Annual Law on SMEs, n. 34/2026, published in the Official Journal on March 23rd, dedicates six articles – from 18 to 23 – to a phenomenon that globally drives a slice of consumption estimated at 152 billion dollars a year, according to Codacons data.
What does the new regulation provide?
The heart of the law is simple, and establishes that a review is lawful only if published within thirty days of using the service, by someone who has actually used that service, and without there having been a discount, an advantage or any other incentive offered by the operator behind it. Conditions that until yesterday no Italian law defined with this precision.
Anyone who manages a restaurant, a hotel or a tourist attraction will be able to report content deemed illegal to the platform managers – the hosting providers – and request its removal according to the procedures already provided for by the European Digital Services Act. Trade associations will also be able to obtain recognition as “reliable whistleblowers”, with a preferential channel in investigations.
There is also the issue of the receipt. The law requires that a review accompanied by tax documentation – receipt, invoice, receipt – is presumably authentic. But the proof, it must be said, must be provided only following a report, not in advance.
The numbers of the phenomenon
The data explains why legislation was adopted. According to the Fipe-Confcommercio Research Office, online reviews affect up to 30% of the turnover of a public establishment. The MIMIT Study Center certifies that in catering 70% of consumers choose where to go based on the opinions published online; the Ministry of Business estimates that 82% of hotel bookings are influenced by the ratings of previous guests.
On the other hand, the platforms themselves admit that they do not have the problem under control. In Trustpilot’s 2025 Trust Report, covering the year 2024, the platform claims to have removed 4.5 million fake reviews — 7% of the total published that year. Nine out of ten were automatically identified by artificial intelligence.
The Trustpilot case and the Antitrust fine
The timing of the law is not coincidental, given that on 23 March 2026 – the same day as its publication in the Official Journal – the AGCM fined Trustpilot with 4 million euros for unfair commercial practice. The investigation revealed that the platform had not carried out adequate checks on the authenticity of the reviews, including those marked as “verified”. What’s more: the paid services offered to companies — presented as tools to reduce fake reviews — actually allowed merchants to select the customers to whom they would send the invitation, thus altering the representativeness of the scores. Trustpilot has announced an appeal, calling the decision “wrong” and in “total disagreement” with how it actually works.
The crux of the guidelines
The law exists, the effectiveness, at least for now, remains pending, given that the concrete application will depend on the guidelines that AGCM and Agcom have yet to develop: the first will deal with sanctions and lawfulness requirements, the second with the interface with the platforms for compliance with the Code of Conduct. The reference regulatory framework is part of that already traced by the European Directive 2019/2161/EU, implemented in Italy with Legislative Decree 26/2023, which equates a false review to a misleading commercial practice when the seller is not able to verify the actual purchase.
