Can you sue someone for a fake review?

You can sue the person who wrote a fake review for defamation, but not the platform. The claim works only if the review states a false fact, not an opinion, and you file before your state’s deadline. If the reviewer is anonymous, a court must first allow a subpoena to identify them. This guide takes each step in the order a lawyer checks it, then gives a state table and a decision list.

When is a fake review defamation?

Defamation is a false statement of fact that harms a reputation. A written statement, such as an online review, is libel. The details vary by state, but a business usually has to prove five things:

1. A false statement of fact. The review says something that can be checked, and it is not true. Truth is a complete defense.
2. Publication. Someone other than you saw it. A public review on Google or Yelp meets this.
3. About your business. A reader would understand that the review is about you.
4. Fault. The reviewer was at least careless about the truth. A business that a court treats as a public figure must show that the reviewer knew the statement was false.
5. Harm. The statement cost you money or reputation. Some states presume harm when a statement accuses you of a crime or of dishonesty in your trade. Other states want proof, such as cancelled bookings.

A review from someone who was never a customer is often the strongest case, because the visit it describes did not happen and the writer knew that. A real customer who exaggerates a bad experience is a much weaker case.

Opinion or false statement of fact?

Most review lawsuits are decided on this question. Courts protect statements that cannot be proven true or false. “Worst pizza in town”, “the owner was rude” and “a total rip-off” are opinions. You cannot sue over them, even when they are unfair.

A statement that you can check against records is different. “They charged my card twice and refused a refund”, “the mechanic stole my catalytic converter” and “I got food poisoning here on Friday” are statements of fact. If they are false, they can be defamatory. The words “I think” do not protect a statement that implies a false fact. “I think they steal from customers” still says that they steal.

Courts read the whole review in context. They treat online reviews as informal, emotional writing, so they read borderline wording as opinion. In 2024 an Ohio appeals court let a law firm sue two people over 99 three-star Google reviews (Amaro v. DeMichael). The claim could go ahead on 62 reviews that stated checkable facts. The other 37 could not support a claim, because they were opinion or had no text at all. The more specific and checkable the false claim, the stronger your case. A rating with no words is almost never a claim; our guide to one-star reviews with no text covers what you can report instead.

Why you cannot sue Google, Yelp or Facebook

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act says that no provider of an interactive computer service “shall be treated as the publisher or speaker” of information that another person provides. Courts apply it to Google, Yelp, Facebook and other review sites and dismiss defamation suits against them over a user’s review.

Section 230 can also block a court order that tells the platform to remove a review. In Hassell v. Bird (2018), a lawyer won a default judgment against a former client over Yelp reviews, and the trial court ordered Yelp, which was not a party, to remove them. The California Supreme Court held 4 to 3 that Section 230 barred the order against Yelp. The judgment against the reviewer was left in place.

So the defendant in a fake review case is the person who wrote it. A platform does not have to obey an order in a case it was not part of. You can still send a judgment against the reviewer with a report through Google’s legal help center, which takes reports of content you believe breaks the law. Google decides each report.

How to find out who wrote an anonymous review

You cannot sue an account name. To find the person, a lawyer usually files a lawsuit against “John Doe” and asks the court to approve a subpoena to the platform for the account’s email address and IP addresses. A second subpoena to the internet provider can then link an IP address to a subscriber. Courts protect anonymous speech, so states set a test first:

• The Dendrite test (New Jersey): try to notify the reviewer, name the exact statements, show evidence for each part of the claim, and then the judge weighs your need against the reviewer’s right to speak anonymously (Dendrite v. Doe No. 3, 2001).
• A summary judgment test (Arizona, Pennsylvania): notice, evidence strong enough to survive summary judgment, then the same weighing (Mobilisa v. Doe 1, 2007).
• A prima facie evidence test without the weighing step (California, Washington): show evidence for each element of defamation before the court orders the name (Krinsky v. Doe 6, 2008; Thomson v. Doe, 2015).
• A lower bar (Illinois, Virginia): in Illinois, a complaint that would survive a motion to dismiss; in Virginia, “a legitimate, good faith basis” that the speech is actionable (Va. Code § 8.01-407.1).
• No set test (Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas): the court applies its ordinary discovery rules, and the result is harder to predict.

A subpoena also has to reach the platform. Hadeed Carpet Cleaning said seven Yelp reviewers were never its customers, and the Virginia Court of Appeals ordered Yelp to name them in 2014. In 2015 the Supreme Court of Virginia vacated that order, because a Virginia court had no power to subpoena records Yelp kept in California. You may need a second proceeding in the platform’s home state.

The deadline keeps running meanwhile. In Glassdoor v. Andra Group (2019), a Texas company asked a court to make Glassdoor identify 10 anonymous reviewers. By the time the Texas Supreme Court ruled, the one-year defamation deadline and the two-year business disparagement deadline had passed, so it dismissed the request as moot. Even a granted subpoena can end at a VPN or public Wi-Fi.

Fake review laws by state

The table covers the 15 states with the most small businesses. Each cell links to the statute, court opinion or legal guide we read. We checked every cell on 4 October 2026. Laws change, so confirm the current rule with a lawyer in your state before you rely on it.

• Deadline to sue: the defamation statute of limitations, usually counted from the date the review was posted.
• Anti-SLAPP law: whether a reviewer can ask for early dismissal, and whether you pay the reviewer’s legal fees if you lose. Grades are from the Institute for Free Speech.
• Unmasking test: what the court requires before it orders a platform to name an anonymous reviewer.

Two patterns stand out. First, the deadline is one year in 12 of the 15 states, and a platform appeal and an unmasking subpoena can use up most of it. Second, 9 of the 15 states have strong anti-SLAPP laws with mandatory fees, so a weak case is expensive to lose there. Florida, Illinois and Massachusetts have narrow laws that likely do not reach a review, Virginia and Arizona leave fees to the judge, and North Carolina has no law. If your state is not in the table, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press anti-SLAPP guide covers every state.

Anti-SLAPP laws: when you pay the reviewer’s legal fees

A SLAPP is a lawsuit filed to stop criticism. As of March 2026, 40 states and the District of Columbia had anti-SLAPP laws, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Congress has never passed a federal one. Seventeen states have now adopted the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, most recently Missouri in July 2026 (RCFP).

Courts usually treat a review of a business as speech on a matter of public interest. In a state with a strong law, the reviewer files an early motion to dismiss, and discovery stops. You must then show with evidence that your claim can win. If you cannot, the court dismisses the case, and in most of these states you pay the reviewer’s lawyer.

One example: a Houston law firm sued a former client over her Facebook and Yelp posts. A Texas judge dismissed the suit under the Texas Citizens Participation Act and ordered the firm to pay $27,000 of her legal fees (FindLaw). This is why lawyers turn down cases that rest on opinion or have no proof of loss.

What a lawsuit costs, and the attention it draws

Count these costs before you decide:

• Your own lawyer for the complaint, the subpoenas and any proceeding in the platform’s home state.
• The reviewer’s legal fees if you lose an anti-SLAPP motion in a state with mandatory fees.
• Time. The review stays up while the case runs.
• Collection. A judgment is worth only what you can collect, and a fake reviewer may have no assets.
• Attention. Court filings are public, and the news covers review lawsuits. A suit can bring far more readers to a review than it had before. This is called the Streisand effect.

In 2012 a Virginia contractor sued a homeowner over her Yelp and Angie’s List reviews and asked for $750,000. ABC News and other national outlets reported the suit and quoted the review (ABC News). The homeowner counterclaimed. In 2014 a jury found that her reviews were defamatory, and that the contractor’s replies to them were defamatory too. Neither side got any damages (National Law Review). If you reply to a review, state facts you can prove, and do not accuse the reviewer of a crime. Our guide on how to respond to negative reviews covers what a reply can and cannot say.

Threats that break the FTC rule

Since 21 October 2024, the FTC Consumer Review Rule (16 CFR 465.7) has banned a business from using an “unfounded or groundless legal threat”, a physical threat, intimidation or a public false accusation to stop a review or get it removed. In December 2025, FTC staff sent warning letters to 10 companies and reminded them that violations of the rule can bring a federal lawsuit and civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation (FTC).

The rule does not stop you from acting on a real claim. The FTC’s questions and answers on the rule say you can threaten legal action over a defamatory review “if you have a legitimate basis for doing so”. A threat is groundless when the law does not support it or the facts have no evidence behind them. In practice:

• Do not reply “delete this or we will sue” to a review that is opinion. That reply can itself break the rule.
• Do not call a reviewer a liar or a fraud in public unless you can prove it.
• Remove any “no negative reviews” clause from your contracts. The Consumer Review Fairness Act voids those clauses, and it leaves defamation claims in place.

Should you remove the review or sue?

Report it to the platform first. Most fake reviews break the platform’s rules before they break the law. Google’s Maps user-generated content policy prohibits reviews that are not based on a real experience, reviews from competitors and current or former employees, and “unsubstantiated allegations of unethical behavior or criminal wrongdoing”. Yelp, Facebook, Trustpilot and Tripadvisor have similar rules. A report needs no court, no lawyer and no name for the reviewer, and the deadline to sue keeps running while you wait for the platform.

1. Save the evidence today: a screenshot of the review with the date, the link to it, the reviewer’s profile, and your records that show no matching customer.
2. Write down the date the review was posted and your state’s deadline from the table above.
3. Report the review to the platform under the policy it breaks. Our guide on how to remove a Google review covers Google’s report and appeal steps.
4. If a competitor or a former employee wrote it, follow the evidence steps in a competitor is leaving fake reviews.
5. If the review states a specific false fact and Google rejects your report, you can use Google’s legal removal request yourself.
6. Talk to a lawyer before the deadline if all of these are true: the review states a provably false fact, the platform kept it up, you can show a real loss, and you can afford to identify the reviewer and to lose an anti-SLAPP motion. A suit is most practical when you already know who wrote it, such as a named competitor or former employee.

Where TrustReviews fits

We do the platform step, not the legal one. You connect your Google Business Profile in the TrustOS portal and choose which reviews we file. Our filing team files each one with the platform under its own policy, and the platform decides. We file all your bad reviews. You pay for the ones that come down. No one can guarantee every review comes down, because the platform makes the final decision on each one. We never contact reviewers or ask a platform who a reviewer is. See how it works on our Google review removal page.