In its investigation, n-tv found that entire law firms in Germany offer services for removing negative reviews. A journalist from the channel conducted an experiment: she asked a restaurateur to contact lawyers for help in removing unfavorable comments. They found advertisements for legal services that cost from 49 euros per review. Typically, lawyers contact Google with demands, and the company prefers to remove such reviews to avoid legal disputes. Most often, lawyers point to incomplete or incorrect information about the reviewers.
Consumer rights advocates recommend not only leaving negative reviews but also documenting experiences with photographs, receipts, and contracts. It is also advisable to refrain from writing a review immediately after the incident to avoid accusations of insults — it’s better to do this the next day.
In November, the magazine Der Spiegel mentioned this issue. According to its data, Google is mass notifying users that their negative reviews have been removed due to potential defamation, offering them the chance to contest this with evidence. In 2024, 2.7 million critical reviews were removed in European Union countries, with nearly 99% of them coming from Germany. One reason for this was a decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Germany in 2022, which allowed those who received negative ratings to claim that they were not from real customers and did not require proof. In turn, the online service is obliged to thoroughly check the authenticity of the review after such a complaint.
