Conflict of interest

Former employees, competitors, and people with a financial stake in disparaging a business cannot leave reviews about it.

What Google says

“Don't post content that misrepresents your identity or affiliations with the people or businesses about which you're contributing. We don't want anyone to be misled by content on Google.”

See Google's full content policy hub

Qualifies for removal

→Review explicitly states reviewer is a former employee with grievance
→Review is from a competing business owner
→Review is from someone clearly paid to disparage the business

Does NOT qualify

→Customer mentioning they're 'never coming back' (real customer leaving)

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The other policy categories

Reviews from people who were never customers Harassment and hate speech Advertising or promoting competitors Off-topic content Personal information in a review Impersonation and misrepresented identity Factually false claims Restricted and illegal content

Full breakdown: Google review policy violations explained · remove fake Google reviews · straight answers · by industry