Protect consumers. Protect honest businesses. Restore trust.
Join Us for Reform
We respectfully ask you to stand with us by completing an affidavit describing the harm you or your business have experienced. Your statement can help build a stronger factual record of how trusted review platforms and related digital trust systems may be causing unjust damage. Every documented account strengthens the public case for transparency, due process, accountability, and reform.
Grizzly Research, “The Trustpilot Mafia – How the Extortion Model Destroys Trustpilot’s Value Proposition” (December 4, 2025)
A short-seller report alleging that Trustpilot’s model harms non-paying businesses by allowing damaging profiles and reviews to persist while paid subscribers benefit from substantially better outcomes. In the project, this is treated as the strongest outside market-facing document because it frames the alleged harm as a structural business model problem rather than a one-off moderation mistake.
https://grizzlyreports.com/trustpilot/
Download PDF:
https://grizzlyreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Grizzly-Research-Trustpilot-20251204.pdf
Ryan Badger, “How Trustpilot Extorts Businesses” (March 19, 2022)
A business owner’s investigative article alleging that Trustpilot creates unavoidable business profiles, allows damaging reviews to accumulate, and then pressures affected companies to buy paid tools to manage the fallout. In the project, this is used as an early public account describing the same “damage first, sell relief later” pattern later echoed by other sources.
https://medium.com/@ryanbadger/how-trustpilot-extorts-businesses-91ca4b6a6f62
Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), €4 million fine against Trustpilot (March 23, 2026)
Italy’s competition authority announced a €4 million fine over unfair commercial practices tied to Trustpilot’s review-management system, including inadequate authenticity checks and insufficient transparency around how the platform works. In the project, this is used as the clearest regulatory example that concerns about review integrity and platform design had moved beyond private complaints into formal government enforcement.
FTC Fake Review Rule / 16 CFR Part 465 (effective October 21, 2024)
FTC’s fake-review rule to show that false or non-genuine reviews are not just bad moderation outcomes, but a recognized consumer-protection issue under U.S. law.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-465
UK CMA action on fake and misleading reviews
CMA’s undertakings with major platforms to show that regulators increasingly view fake reviews as a competition and consumer-harm issue that disadvantages honest businesses.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fake-and-misleading-reviews-5-businesses-under-cma-investigation
Spain’s 2025 review-law reforms
Spain’s reforms as an example of regulators moving toward stronger verification and removal rights when businesses can prove a reviewer was not a real customer.
https://blog.galalaw.com/post/102m1ki/new-rules-for-automatic-renewals-and-online-reviews-in-spain
Denmark data-protection reprimand involving erasure handling
Danish regulatory action as another outside signal that Trustpilot’s handling of removal-related complaints had already drawn formal scrutiny in Europe.
Datatilsynet, Case No. 2022-7320-3511, July 4, 2023
https://www.edpb.europa.eu/system/files/2023-10/dk_07-23decision_public_0.pdf
See How Your Business is being affected
Fill out the contact form to receive a free AI Reputation Analysis of your business and find out whether false, misleading, or unfair online review signals may be harming your visibility, credibility, and customer trust. Our review will help identify potential red flags across public review platforms, search results, and AI-driven business summaries so you can better understand the risks to your reputation and whether your business may be suffering hidden damage without your knowledge.
SUPPORT THE MISSION
Help power public advocacy, legal pressure, research, and awareness through GoFundMe.
This campaign is designed for the public square. It is about more than one company or one grievance. It is about reforming a larger digital system that can injure honest businesses, mislead consumers, and normalize platform disparity. GoFundMe support helps sustain the work needed to document evidence, prepare advocacy materials, pursue accountability, and keep public attention on the reform effort.
What support can fund
✓ Public-interest advocacy materials for lawmakers, journalists, regulators, and consumer watchdogs.
✓ Evidence organization, exhibit preparation, and research into platform practices and comparative legal standards.
✓ Website messaging, public awareness outreach, and educational tools to explain the disparities in plain language.
✓ Support for sustained pressure toward transparency, due process, and fair review-platform reform.
