The DMCC Act was passed in 2024, and its new rules on consumer reviews came into force on 6 April 2025. These rules introduced new legal obligations to prevent, detect and remove fake and misleading customer reviews.
Learn more about the DMCC Act on the UK Government website
What does the DMCC Act mean for dealers?
The DMCC Act bans:
- Submitting or commissioning fake reviews, or incentivised reviews where the incentive is not disclosed
- Publishing reviews or review information in a misleading way
- Publishing reviews without taking reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and remove fake or misleading reviews
- Offering services to traders to do, or facilitate any of the above
These rules also cover 'consumer review information' that needs to be presented fairly, such as;
- Star ratings
- Rankings
- Summaries from reviews
Important: Incentivised reviews aren't allowed on the Autotrader platform. It doesn't matter if the incentive is disclosed. This means you shouldn't offer payments, discounts or other benefits in exchange for reviews intended for Autotrader.
Dealerships, review providers and publishers (such as Autotrader) are responsible for making sure they follow the legislation.
By complying, you’re protecting your business from potential regulatory action.
Examples of the banned practices include:
- Getting fake reviews from people who haven't purchased vehicles from your dealership
- Offering incentives (such as a discount or other benefit) to get reviews. The DMCC Act requires disclosure, but Autotrader does not allow incentivised reviews to be published on the platform at all
- Only asking for reviews from customers who you know have had a positive experience
- Publishing reviews or review information in a misleading way, such as suppressing negative feedback or manipulating review displays so that only positive reviews are prominent
- Pressuring customers to change or remove negative reviews could amount to publishing reviews in a misleading way or suppressing negative feedback
What the DMCC Act means for Autotrader
As the publisher of reviews, Autotrader has an obligation to:
- Take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent fake or misleading reviews and review information from being published on our platform
- To remove reviews that contain this when identified
Any dealer customers found breaching these rules risk being removed from the Autotrader platform, either temporarily or permanently.
Find out more about our Dealer Reviews Business Rules
What should I do next as a dealership?
We partner with Feefo to collect dealer reviews and display them on our platform. Every dealer who has an advertising contract with us can use Feefo reviews at no extra cost.
You may also choose to work with an alternative or additional review partner to collect reviews. We also publish reviews collected by certain other review partners that we work with (“Syndicated Review Partners”). For further information, see our Review Policy.
If you collect reviews through one of the Syndicated Review Partners, or through other channels outside of Autotrader, you must make sure those practices comply with the DMCC Act.
Your review provider will help with things like customer verification, authenticity checks and moderation, but you’re still responsible for your own practices. Here’s a checklist:
- Take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent, detect and remove fake or misleading reviews
- Keep clear records of review-related activities, checks and decisions
- Make sure reviewers are genuine customers who’ve purchased vehicles
- Do not offer incentives in exchange for reviews intended for Autotrader
- Make sure your team knows what’s required and what isn’t allowed
- Review your processes regularly to stay compliant
For further information about your obligations, check our Dealer Reviews Business Rules.
Find out which review providers you can use for Autotrader reviews