Fresha and Phorest Review-Gating Software Raises Legal Questions
Business platforms Phorest and Fresha offer tools that can filter customer feedback before it reaches Google. Google bans selectively soliciting positive reviews, and Australian law bars misleading conduct. Consultants say many small businesses may not realize the risk.
Business management platforms Phorest and Fresha offer features that can filter customer feedback before it reaches public review sites such as Google, raising questions about platform rules and Australian consumer law. The review-gating software behind stars on business pages is spreading among small firms.
Review gating means selectively encouraging customers to post public reviews based on their earlier feedback. Happy customers get the invitation. Unhappy ones may not.
How the tools work
Both platforms bundle bookings, payments and customer management with feedback features. Phorest published documentation this year explaining how businesses can set rating thresholds that decide which customers are invited to leave public reviews.
Fresha offers a feature called Google Rating Boost. Businesses set a minimum star rating before customers are prompted to share reviews on Google. Customers who rate their experience below that level are not prompted to post publicly through the feature.
Third-party review-management software is used across hospitality, retail, real estate, automotive services, trades, beauty and wellness. It can create misleading pictures of customer satisfaction, the report on the practice found.
What the rules say
Google's policy prohibits businesses from “discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers”. Trustpilot and Tripadvisor also ban selective solicitation of positive reviews.
Australian Consumer Law does not name review gating. Businesses that filter reviews still risk breaching laws against misleading or deceptive conduct.
A precedent dates to 2017, when the Federal Court found Meriton Suites had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. The company had manipulated which guests were invited to leave TripAdvisor reviews.
Industry views
Brian Logan, founder of SEO North Sydney, called review gating a “grey area” but a “good tactic” for protecting an online reputation. “As long as you’re doing things that aren’t explicitly dodgy, it’s fine,” he said. He argued businesses were “fighting fire with fire”, because some customers threaten negative reviews to get their way.
Logan said asking satisfied customers for reviews is nothing new. “I mean, you’d ask people in person, I don’t see why there’s no difference to asking them online,” he said.
Jason Castellano, a digital consultant at Knight Design, said most businesses probably do not know the legal risk. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of businesses don’t even realise they’re doing anything wrong, especially if the software itself is offering the feature,” he said.
Google, Phorest, Fresha and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
