UK's Trustpilot fined $4.6 million by Italian regulator for misleading consumersItalian Regulator's Actions and Trustpilot's ResponseBackground of the FineMarch 23 (Reuters) - Italy's competition regulator on Monday slapped a fine of 4 million euros ($4.6 million) on online review platform Trustpilot and its units for failing to adequately verify the authenticity of reviews and for misleading consumers about how their services work. Issues with Review Collection and VerificationHandpicked Review InvitationsThe platform's review collection services allowed businesses to handpick which consumers received review invitations, undermining the representativeness of published ratings even when reviews were labelled as "verified", the Italian Competition Authority said. Trustpilot's Statement"We strongly disagree with the conclusions reached in this finding by the AGCM (regulator) and will be appealing it robustly," Trustpilot said in a statement. Its shares, which fell as much as 2.7% in early trading, were trading up 4.2% as of 1416 GMT. ($1 = 0.8670 euros)(Reporting by Yamini Kalia and Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Arun Koyyur)

Source: The Guardian March 23, 2026 08:12 UTC