Policy & process

Google review removal versus legal action

One route is a platform decision. The other is a legal claim. They solve different problems.

Businesses often arrive at our door after a solicitor has been mentioned, and it is worth being clear about the difference. Google removes content that breaches its own policies through an internal process. A legal claim is about your rights against the person who published something.

We are not solicitors and we do not give legal advice. What we do is test a review against Google's policies, and we will tell you plainly when the policy route is the wrong tool.

Send us the review and get an honest answer.

From £99 a removal, priced per review. No charge for the eligibility check.

Check my review free

Honest check before you pay
Most cases decided in 24 to 72 hours
Full refund if Google keeps it up

The policy route

Reporting is free, fast in relative terms, and decided by Google rather than a court.

Available to any profile owner, with no need to identify or contact the reviewer
Decided on the content and the reviewer's relationship to the business
No cost to the business beyond the casework, and no public record of the dispute

The legal route

A defamation or data protection claim is about the publisher, not the platform. It can be appropriate where a genuine customer makes a serious false allegation, which is exactly where policy will not help.

You need to identify the publisher, and anonymous accounts make that difficult
Costs and timelines are on a different scale entirely to a platform report
Solicitors handle takedown requests that cite legal grounds; we handle policy reports

Choosing between them

Start with the policy question, because it is cheap and it answers quickly. If the content is protected opinion from a real customer, that is when a solicitor's view becomes useful.

A review naming staff, alleging crime or publishing personal details usually has a policy route
A false statement from a genuine customer that complies with policy may need legal advice
Some cases use both: we report on policy while you take advice on the rest

Official Google documentation

Questions we get asked

We can report the review where the wording also breaches one of Google's own policies, such as harassment, personal information or an allegation of illegal conduct. Deciding whether something is defamatory is a legal question we do not answer.

Not through Google's review process. Letters and legal notices go down a different route, and they are assessed on legal grounds rather than the content policies a reviewer applies.

That is a decision for you and your solicitor. Sending warnings from a business account tends to escalate a dispute and can itself be read as harassment, so we keep out of it.

Review problemsRemove defamatory reviewsWhat to do about defamatory Google reviews in the UK: when the wording breaches Google's own policies, how to report it, and where the removal route ends.Read more Policy & processWhen Google keeps it upGoogle will not remove the review. The practical response: reply well, protect the average, consider advice, and know when to stop spending money on a removal.Read more Policy & processProhibited review contentWhat Google prohibits and restricts in reviews, in plain English: the named policy categories, what each covers, and why a merely negative review is not a breach.Read more Policy & processHow to report a reviewHow to report a Google review that breaches policy: where the flag lives, which category to choose, what to write, and what Google does with the report afterwards.Read more

Tell us about the review

Send the review or your Google Maps link on WhatsApp. We will tell you whether it breaks Google's rules, what a removal costs, and whether it is worth filing at all. The decision is always Google's, and the eligibility check is free.

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