--- title: "Offering a Discount for a Google Review: Policy and Law in Canada" description: "A customer wraps up an appointment, you're happy with how it went, and the idea comes up: "Leave me a five-star review and I'll knock 10% off your next visit." It sounds harmless, even generous. It still breaks Google's review policy, and depending on how it's worded, it can create a problem under the Competition ... Read more" canonical: "https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/blog/incentivized-google-reviews-canada/" lastmod: "2023-06-20T14:12:00+00:00" lang: "en-CA" format: "markdown" --- HTML version: # Offering a Discount for a Google Review: Policy and Law in Canada A customer wraps up an appointment, you're happy with how it went, and the idea comes up: "Leave me a five-star review and I'll knock 10% off your next visit." It sounds harmless, even generous. It still breaks Google's review policy, and depending on how it's worded, it can create a problem under the Competition Act too. Here is what each of those two sources says, and how to ask for a review without any of that risk. ## Why does Google reject reviews traded for a discount? Because Google's policy explicitly bans offering money, a discount, a free product, or any other incentive in exchange for a review, whether you're asking for a positive review or just "a review." The rule doesn't distinguish between a big giveaway and a small symbolic discount. The moment a reward is tied to a review, the line has been crossed. Google's reasoning is straightforward: a review written for a reward stops reflecting the customer's actual experience and starts reflecting how appealing the reward was. A profile full of reviews like that ends up misleading the next customer who reads it looking for an honest picture of the business. This policy applies to your [Google Business Profile listing](/en/glossary/#google-business-profile), whether you run a salon, a clinic, or a restaurant. It applies just as much to an offer made in person at the counter as to an automated follow-up message sent after the visit. The method used to propose the trade doesn't change the rule. ## What does Canadian law say about paid or incentivized reviews? Federally, the Competition Act prohibits false or misleading representations made to the public to promote a business or a product, and it has a provision that speaks directly to testimonials: a business cannot make a representation of a testimonial unless the testimonial was given beforehand, in writing, and the representation reflects it accurately. An online review works essentially like a public testimonial, and a review paid to be positive drifts away from what the person would have written without a reward attached. In 2022, the federal government tightened the administrative penalties for deceptive marketing practices in general, which makes the financial risk more concrete than it used to be for a business that gets caught. The Competition Bureau, the federal agency that enforces the Act, has said publicly that fake reviews and reviews obtained through compensation are among the practices it watches closely. In Quebec, the province's Consumer Protection Act adds its own ban on false or misleading representations made to a consumer, which gives the same kind of problem a second, provincial door it can be walked through. None of this is personalized legal advice: if your business has already offered this kind of discount and you want to know where you stand, a lawyer who works in consumer law is the right resource, not a blog post. ## What is review gating, and why does Google ban that too? Review gating means asking only your satisfied customers for a public review and routing unhappy customers to a private form instead of Google. It sounds like reasonable customer management: why air a complaint in public when it could be settled privately? The problem is that gating builds a profile that only shows the best experiences, which misleads readers in the same way a discount-for-a-review deal does. Google bans gating for the same reason it bans incentives: both practices produce a profile that no longer represents the real range of customer experiences. The better way to handle a dissatisfied customer is to reply publicly to the negative review, calmly and without over-explaining, rather than stopping that customer from leaving a review at all. A profile with two or three mixed reviews sitting among 80 genuine positive ones usually reads as more trustworthy than a perfect profile that looks too good to be true. ## What does a business risk by working around these rules? On Google's side, the consequences range from the flagged reviews being removed to the entire listing being suspended, which pulls the business out of local search results and Maps while the case is reviewed. A suspended listing stops generating the calls and visits that come from local search, which hits revenue directly for a business that depends on that visibility. On the legal side, a practice found to be misleading can lead to administrative penalties and, in serious cases, further action, on top of the reputational damage if the story spreads on social media or in local news. The most common risk in practice isn't a dramatic lawsuit. It's a suspended Google listing, often after a competitor or an unhappy customer flags it. That consequence tends to arrive faster than expected, and it isn't quick to undo: a suspended profile usually needs a formal reinstatement request and a wait before it's visible again. ## How do you ask for a Google review without offering anything in return? The approach that works, and the only one that's actually allowed, is asking every customer for the same review, with no distinction and no reward. After a visit or a completed service, a follow-up email or text simply asks whether the customer would be willing to share their experience on Google, with a direct link to the listing so there's no extra step to hunt down. The message doesn't mention a discount, a draw, or a reward of any kind. It goes out to everyone, whether a customer seemed thrilled with the service or stayed fairly neutral about it. That lack of filtering is exactly what makes the profile trustworthy. That's the process our [reputation management service](/en/gestion-reputation/) sets up for SIB clients: an automated request, identical for every customer, with no compensation of any kind attached, plus follow-up on incoming reviews and a public reply to anyone who asks for one. Timing matters too. A request sent right after the service, while the experience is still fresh, gets a better response than one sent a week later in a generic newsletter reminder. ## What if a customer insists on "thanking" you with a review? Thank them for the thought, then politely decline to turn it into a formal trade. Something like: "I really appreciate that, but I'd rather not offer anything tied to a review, it keeps things honest for everyone who reads our listing." Most customers understand that response and leave the review anyway, simply because they liked the service. What has to stay separate is the commercial gesture, a loyalty discount, a points program, a birthday gift card, and the review request. Both can exist at the same business, as long as they're never presented as a trade for one another. A discount tied explicitly to a review stays risky even when it's offered after the fact, once the review is already posted, rather than before. The order doesn't change much; the link between the two moves is what creates the problem. *Drafted with AI assistance, checked and published by [Marven Salgado](/en/about/marven-salgado/).* ## Go further - **Service:** [Online reputation management that builds trust for Montreal businesses](https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/gestion-reputation/) - **Case study:** [Coiffure Prestige](https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/coiffure-prestige/) - **Glossary:** [Digital marketing glossary: Google Business Profile](https://socialinfluencebuilder.com/en/glossary/#google-business-profile)