Just Eat and Autotrader Investigated by CMA Over Fake Reviews

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a series of high-profile investigations into five major companies—including food delivery giant Just Eat and automotive marketplace Autotrader—as part of a sweeping crackdown on fake and misleading online reviews. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Friday that it is deploying its new, enhanced enforcement powers to determine whether these firms have breached consumer law by manipulating star ratings or suppressing negative feedback. The probe, which also targets the review platform Feefo, funeral provider Dignity, and pasta brand Pasta Evangelists, marks the next phase of a national effort to protect household budgets from “misleading content” in an increasingly digital economy.

The investigation into Just Eat focuses on concerns that its internal ratings system may have artificially inflated the scores of certain restaurants and grocers, potentially giving customers a skewed perception of food quality. For Autotrader and its third-party review partner Feefo, the watchdog is examining allegations that a significant number of one-star reviews were excluded from being published or counted toward overall star ratings. The CMA suggests that by “moderating” out negative experiences, these platforms may have denied consumers a “fully rounded picture” of a dealer’s or car’s reliability.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, issued a stern warning to the tech and service sectors: “Fake reviews strike at the heart of consumer trust. With household budgets under pressure, people need to know they’re getting genuine information—not star ratings that have been manipulated to push them towards the wrong choice.” She emphasized that businesses have been given ample time to adjust to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which officially banned practices like hosting fake posts or hiding negative feedback in April 2025. “Now we’re deploying our new powers to tackle these harmful practices head-on,” she added.

The scope of the “fake review” problem is vast; research from Which? indicates that 89% of consumers rely on reviews before making a purchase, influencing billions of pounds in annual spending. The CMA’s current sweep also includes more unusual sectors: Dignity is being investigated over whether it asked its own staff to write positive reviews about its crematoria services, while Pasta Evangelists faces scrutiny for allegedly offering discounts in exchange for five-star ratings on delivery apps without disclosing the incentive.

Unlike previous years, where the CMA often had to go through the courts to enforce changes, the 2024 Act grants the regulator the direct power to decide if law-breaking has occurred. If the firms are found to have infringed consumer protections, they face staggering fines of up to 10% of their annual global turnover. In response, Just Eat stated it is working “closely with the CMA” to ensure transparency, while Autotrader and Feefo both expressed confidence in their compliance frameworks, pledging full cooperation with the investigation.

As the “Spring Awakening” temperatures bring more people out into the hospitality and car-buying markets this weekend, the watchdog’s message is clear: the era of “curated” perfection is over. The investigation brings the total number of businesses under formal review to 14, following earlier commitments secured from tech giants like Google and Amazon to beef up their own anti-fraud systems. For the British public, the hope is that these algorithms of influence will finally be held to the same standard of honesty as a face-to-face recommendation.

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