Review gating is the practice of asking customers how they felt before you ask them for a public review, then sending only the happy ones to Google and quietly routing everyone else to a private form. It looks like smart reputation management. Google prohibits it, the FTC has fined businesses for the outcome it produces, and if you run reputation for clients, it is the fastest way to put their Business Profile at risk.
This guide covers what counts as review gating, why it is not allowed, what the rules actually say, and the process that gets more reviews without filtering anyone out.
What counts as review gating
Review gating is any step that decides who gets the public review link based on how satisfied they are. The classic version is a two-step email or SMS:
- "How would you rate your experience, 1 to 5?"
- Customers who pick 4 or 5 see a button to review you on Google. Customers who pick 1 to 3 see a "tell us privately what went wrong" form, and never see the Google link.
Other versions do the same thing with less obvious wording:
- A thumbs up or thumbs down screen where only the thumbs up path shows the review link
- An NPS survey that sends promoters to Google and detractors to support
- Staff told to hand review cards only to customers who seemed pleased
- Automations that only trigger a review request when a job is marked "happy" or a satisfaction field is above a threshold
If the answer to "how did we do?" changes whether someone is offered a public review, it is gating.
Is review gating illegal?
It is two things at once: a clear breach of platform rules, and in the US a practice the FTC treats as deceptive when it distorts what buyers see.
Google. Google's policies for Maps and Business Profiles say businesses must not discourage negative reviews or selectively solicit positive ones. Review gating is the textbook case of selective solicitation. Google has said this plainly since 2018, and the consequences range from reviews being removed to the profile being restricted. You can read the current wording in Google's Maps user contributed content policy.
The FTC. The FTC's guide for marketers on soliciting reviews tells businesses not to ask for reviews only from customers they expect to leave positive ones. The Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, which took effect on October 21, 2024, goes further on review suppression: it bars misrepresenting that the reviews you show represent all or most reviews when negative ones have been held back, and it makes violations subject to civil penalties of more than $50,000 each. The FTC's 2022 case against Fashion Nova, which settled for $4.2 million, was about exactly this pattern: positive reviews published, lower ratings held back.
Elsewhere. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act banned fake reviews and misleading presentation of reviews from April 2025. In the EU, traders must say whether and how they check that reviews come from real customers. Yelp goes further than all of them and asks businesses not to solicit reviews at all.
This is not legal advice, and the rules differ by market. But there is no major market or platform where gating is the safe option.
Why agencies get caught by it
Most agencies never set out to gate reviews. It arrives in three ways:
- The software does it by default. Many review tools have sold "sentiment routing" or "feedback first" as a feature for years. If a client's previous vendor set it up, it may still be running.
- A well-meant automation. Someone builds a workflow that sends the review request only after a positive survey score, because it seemed efficient.
- Front-line habits. Staff naturally ask the customers who smiled and skip the ones who complained.
For an agency the risk is multiplied: one flawed setup copied across twenty client workspaces is twenty profiles exposed to the same problem. It also sits badly with the FTC disclosure duties agencies already carry for the marketing they run.
The compliant way to ask for reviews
The honest version is less clever and works better over time:
- Ask everyone who had the service. Not a hand-picked list. Every customer who bought, close to when the job was done.
- Send the same request to everyone. One message, one link straight to the public review page. No rating question in front of it.
- Make it one tap. Use the business's official Google review link so the customer lands on the review form, not on a search page.
- Remind once or twice, then stop. A short reminder at a reasonable hour is fine. Repeated chasing is not.
- Never pay or reward for reviews. No discounts, entries or gifts in exchange for a review, positive or not.
- Answer every review, especially the bad ones. A calm, specific reply to a 2-star review does more for buyers reading the profile than ten unanswered 5-stars.
Can you still collect private feedback? Yes, as long as it does not decide who sees the public link. If you want to ask "how did we do?", ask it separately, and offer the public review link to everyone regardless of the answer. The test is simple: could an unhappy customer leave a public review through the same message as a happy one? If yes, you are not gating.
How Inflowave handles review requests
Inflowave's reputation tools are built around that process, and they do not offer review gating at all.
- Everyone is offered the public review. A review request in Inflowave links to the business's public Google review page, or to Inflowave's review page, where the customer can also leave private feedback. Whatever they rate privately, the Google review button is always shown, so nobody is filtered out.
- It goes to real customers. Requests are sent to contacts already in the CRM, so you are asking people who actually bought, not a list someone pasted in.
- The link is Google's own. Inflowave uses the business's official review link, or the review link you saved, and tracks when it is opened before passing the customer straight to Google.
- Reminders are capped and polite. At most two reminders, by the same channel as the request, and only between 9am and 8pm in the business's own time zone.
- Reviews are matched and answered in one place. When the review appears, Inflowave matches it to the request and records the rating, and every client's reviews land in one reply queue.
- No incentives, no ghostwriting. There is no feature for rewarding reviews or writing them on a customer's behalf, and there will not be.
If you manage reputation for many clients, this matters most at setup. A compliant process copied across every workspace is a lot safer than twenty clever ones. You can see the full feature set on the reputation management page, and it runs inside the same agency CRM as the rest of your client work.
Related guides
- How to get your Google review link
- How to get more Google reviews
- How to respond to Google reviews
- Google review QR codes
- Fake Google reviews: spot and report them
- How to remove a Google review
FAQ
What is considered review gating?
Any step that filters who is offered a public review based on their satisfaction. Asking for a rating first and only showing the Google link to high scores is the most common form.
Is review gating illegal?
It breaks Google's policies everywhere, and in the US the FTC treats suppressing negative reviews as deceptive, with civil penalties under its 2024 rule on consumer reviews. Take legal advice for your own markets.
Is it review gating if I send a survey first?
Only if the survey decides who gets the review link. A survey that everyone receives, followed by a review link that everyone also receives, is not gating.
Can I ask only my best customers for reviews?
No. Choosing who to ask based on how happy you think they are is selective solicitation, which is what Google's policy prohibits.
What happens if a business is caught gating reviews?
On Google, reviews can be removed and the profile restricted. In the US, the FTC can seek civil penalties, and past cases have ended in multi-million dollar settlements.
Does Inflowave offer review gating?
No. Every customer is offered the public Google review link, whatever they rate privately. Private feedback never decides who sees it.
