
The Italian government on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, presented a bill regulating online reviews of hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions. In this way, the authorities decided to combat fake or paid reviews.
In particular, the law introduces a number of obstacles for potential reviewers, including the need to provide identification, as well as proof that they have actually visited the place they intend to evaluate, writes Reuters.
According to the bill, reviews must be published within two weeks of a visit and can be removed if they are untrue, or in any case two years after publication. However, the bill does not explain who will decide whether criticism is false.
The bill, which could still be amended in parliament, also intends to ban reviews that are paid for or sponsored through incentives – it turns out that this underhanded practice is quite common in Italy.
“Today marks an important step to protect our business,” said Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche.
As the publication notes, false reviews are already illegal in Italy, but for now, stopping these violations is difficult. The new bill proposes to entrust the verification of reviews and issuing possible fines to the Italian antitrust authority.
“Fake reviews are a problem for fair competition between companies, as they can have a big impact on sales, and also a problem for consumers, who can be misled,” Michele Carrus, head of consumer association Federconsumatori, told Reuters. “This problem had to be solved. It’s difficult to do it right, but I’m sure we can get it done in the parliamentary debate.”