How to Flag a Trustpilot Review as a Business (What Happens)

A business cannot delete a Trustpilot review, but it can flag one from its business account for a specific breach of Trustpilot's guidelines, and Trustpilot assesses the flag only against the reason chosen. Disliking a review is not a reason, and Trustpilot says so. If the reviewer can fix the problem they get the chance to, and the review may be hidden while they do; if it cannot be fixed it usually stays offline. Flag reports are public on your profile, so flag the same way for good and bad reviews.

What does flagging a Trustpilot review actually do?

Trustpilot's Guidelines for Businesses put the model in one line: "We don't moderate reviews, but everyone can flag reviews that breach our guidelines." A flag asks Trustpilot to check one review against one rule. It is not a request to take the review down, and it is not a dispute about the facts.

The review itself is not yours to remove. "A review is owned by the person who wrote it," the guidelines say, and reviewers "can edit or delete their reviews at any time". Trustpilot accepts flags for several reasons, but "not liking a review is not one of them", and "we only assess a review for the chosen reason." Pick the wrong reason and a review that breaks a different rule can survive the check.

Which reasons can a business flag a review for?

The reasons track Trustpilot's Guidelines for Reviewers. These are the rules a flag can point to, with what shows the breach.

No genuine experience

"You can write a review if you've had a recent, genuine experience," and the guidelines ask reviewers to write about an experience "that happened in the past 12 months." If no order, booking or account matches the review, you can ask Trustpilot "to try to verify the reviewer's experience". Reviewers are told they "might be asked to verify your experience" and to keep documentation such as receipts. Not recognising a name is not enough on its own: Trustpilot says it "won't overturn our decision just because you don't recognise the reviewer."

A conflict of interest

"If you're closely associated with, work for, or are in competition with a particular company, you shouldn't review it." Reviews from a competitor, a current or former employee, or someone writing on another person's behalf fall here. The evidence is the connection, and our guide on proving a competitor is behind fake reviews covers how to document one.

Harmful, illegal or defamatory content

Reviewers must not "post anything harmful, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory or obscene", and businesses "can flag reviews that are defamatory". Trustpilot also says it is "a consumer review platform, not a regulatory authority or a court of law", so a flag that depends on deciding who is telling the truth about the experience is the kind it stays out of. Threats, blackmail and abuse are clearer cases.

Personal information

Including someone else's private details is out: "it's never OK to include someone else's." A review that names a staff member's home address, phone number or health details breaks the rule on its face.

Promotional content

Reviewers must not "include any promotional references, marketing material or links", which catches reviews that advertise a rival or sell something.

The wrong company

Trustpilot tells reviewers to "double check the company and country domain you're reviewing." A review that plainly describes another business, or a different country's site, is a straightforward flag.

How do you flag a review from a Trustpilot business account?

1. Sign in to your Trustpilot business account and open the review.
2. If you do not recognise the reviewer, reply first and ask for an order or booking reference. Trustpilot's guidelines suggest engaging with the reviewer before asking it to verify the experience.
3. Choose to flag the review and select the one reason that matches the rule it breaks.
4. Add the specifics Trustpilot can check: the sentence that breaks the rule, the absence of a matching order, the connection to a competitor. "This is unfair" and "I don't know this person" give Trustpilot nothing to assess.
5. Watch your email. Since April 2026, Trustpilot's flagged review emails cannot be replied to; a decision you disagree with is challenged with the "Appeal our Decision" link, where you explain why and can attach supporting documents.

Flag consistently. Trustpilot asks businesses to "be fair and consistent", for example flagging five-star reviews for the same reasons as one-star reviews, and the record is public.

What happens after you flag a review?

Trustpilot checks the review against the reason you chose. If the problem can be fixed, "the reviewer will be given the opportunity to change it", and "the review might be temporarily hidden during this process." If it is not fixed, or cannot be, "the review will usually stay offline."

For reports that a review is not based on a genuine experience, Trustpilot's business blog describes an "automated engine" that "looks at a variety of different data points", including reviewer behaviour and history. A reviewer who disagrees "can come back with evidence to prove their experience". When Trustpilot sides with the business, "we'll move the review offline and tell the reviewer." The same post asks businesses to report only what looks suspicious.

Then there is the public record. "We'll display a public version of your report, so that everyone can see why you've flagged the review," and "all your flagging activity is also publicly visible via your business profile page." Each profile's transparency page, headed Company activity, shows how often the business flagged its reviews, the "Distribution of flagged reviews by star rating", and what happened to them, under labels such as "Reviews removed from trustpilot.com" and "Reviewer resolved the breach of Trustpilot's guidelines". A business that flags only one-star reviews shows it to every visitor.

What will Trustpilot not remove?

"We won't remove a review just because you think it's unfair." Trustpilot also says, "We don't get involved in disputes about what actually went down between a reviewer and a business." An honest one-star review from a real customer, a rating you think is out of proportion, a complaint you believe you resolved: all of these stay.

Misusing the tool has consequences. The guidelines say Trustpilot "can block access to or suspend features in your business account" and "place a consumer alert on your profile", and its page on the action it takes mentions "restricting the flagging functionality on their account".

Can you ask a customer to change or delete a review?

Not in any way that involves pressure or a reward. "Pressuring a reviewer or offering them an incentive to change or delete their review is a big no-no." Trustpilot's list of misuse goes further than many owners expect: it includes "Offering incentives in exchange for a customer to write, edit or remove a review", and "It also extends to asking a customer to edit or remove their review after the business has resolved their issue." The penalties run up to a Consumer Warning on the profile, which hides the TrustScore while it is active. Fix the problem, reply publicly, and leave any update to the reviewer.

How DeleteGoogleReviews.com handles Trustpilot cases

DeleteGoogleReviews.com, a San Diego based review removal service, reads every review against Trustpilot's guidelines before anything is filed and tells you which ones have grounds. For those, we choose the single reason that fits, ask Trustpilot to verify the experience where no order matches, and keep the flagging consistent so the public record stays clean. The account signals that expose a fake are much the same on every platform, and our checklist of fake review signs sets them out. You pay only after a review is confirmed removed, with a 98% documented success rate across the cases we accept, and Trustpilot decides every case. See our Trustpilot review removal service, our process and the guarantee.

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