I’m glad to see finally that courts are doing something about the fake reviews – I honestly think that its something Google themselves are going to need to crack down on though.

Andy

May I suggest NOT holding your breath?

@Matt
It is not illegal to incentivize employees unless you ask them to do something against the rules…. just encouraging them to request reviews is fine.

That being said I have seen review incentives go awry when not done properly. See: When Asking for Reviews Is Just Too Much And Not Enough. And I think you really need to be sure that they are NOT cherry picking who they ask and they are not going “above and beyond” in a way that would put the company at risk.

In your last line when you said, “all are still wrong in the eyes of the law and the review platforms when you compensate customers, employees or their friends for a Google review or any other review.”

Is it against the law for companies to incentivize their employees to get more reviews then?

As long as the company stipulates with its employees that all reviews must come from real customers (no fake reviews or reviews by friends/family) and customers cannot be incentivized in any way or told about the internal employee review bonus.