[pbhjpbhj]

I'm pretty sure what the companies selling reviews are doing is unlawful in the EU under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive - the reviews would need to state they were done for a consideration and by a business in order to meet with legal requirements from what I understand.

There's a guide to the directive based on UK law at http://www.out-law.com/page-9050:

>'A practice is unfair if it fails to meet the standard of "professional diligence" (the standard of skill and care that would reasonably be expected of a trader in its field of activity) and it materially impairs an average consumer's ability to make an informed decision, causing him to make a decision he would not otherwise have made.' (Out-Law.com, ibid) //

[_delirium]

In some cases it may be illegal in the U.S. also. The clearest case would be if a direct competitor hires someone to post fake negative reviews intending to damage a competing business (and fails to hide the trail). In that case the "target" would have a good case that their competitor is engaged in some kind of tortious interference with their business.

edit: There's at least one case currently in the courts on a similar theory, http://tushnet.blogspot.com/2015/02/allegations-of-fake-inde...