How to Remove Fake Google Reviews in Canada: The Complete Guide for Ontario Business Owners

Fake reviews aren't just annoying. Under Canadian law, they're illegal. Here's how to spot one, report it, escalate it when Google drags its feet, and make sure it stops being able to hurt you.

Tanzim Hoque, Founder of Bloom Reviews · July 2026

If you've ever opened your Google Business Profile and found a one-star review from someone you've never heard of, with no order, no booking, no name you recognize, you already know how helpless it feels. It sits there next to your real reviews, dragging your average down, and Google's process for dealing with it can feel like shouting into a void.

Here's what most guides on this topic won't tell you: if you're a business owner in Mississauga, Brampton, Toronto, or anywhere else in Canada, fake reviews aren't just a platform problem. They're a legal one. The Competition Bureau has been actively enforcing against fake and misleading reviews for years, and the penalties are real. That changes both how seriously you should take this and what your options actually are.

This guide covers all of it: how to tell a fake review from a genuinely bad experience, the exact steps to report one to Google, what to do when Google's first response isn't enough, the legal backdrop in Canada, and, most importantly, how to make sure a fake review can never do serious damage to your business again.

Is It Actually Illegal to Post a Fake Review in Canada?

Yes. This is the part almost nobody talks about.

Under section 52 and section 74.01 of the federal Competition Act, it's illegal to make a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect, and Canadian courts have confirmed this includes online reviews and testimonials. The Act prohibits knowingly or recklessly making a representation to the public that is false or misleading in a material respect, for the purpose of promoting a product, service, or business interest, by any means whatever.

The Competition Bureau, the federal agency that enforces this law, has taken direct action on fake reviews before. In 2022, it fined a Montreal company over allegations tied to purchasing positive reviews from third parties to promote its business, resulting in a penalty of $310,000 plus $40,000 in costs. The Bureau has also gone after businesses over employee reviews specifically: requiring employees who post reviews about their own employer or a competitor to clearly disclose that employment relationship, and warning that employers who look the other way can face enforcement themselves.

The penalties on the books are significant. On a first occurrence, individuals face penalties up to $750,000 and corporations up to $10,000,000, rising to $1,000,000 and $15,000,000 for repeat violations under the civil regime, and that's before criminal provisions come into play, which can include jail time for individuals.

None of this means the Competition Bureau is going to personally intervene over a single suspicious one-star review on your profile. But it does mean two things worth knowing:

You have a legitimate legal basis to call a fake review what it is when you're disputing it, not just a platform-policy argument.
If you're ever tempted to buy reviews or pressure staff to post them, don't. The enforcement risk is real and it applies to businesses of any size, not just national brands.

This section is general information, not legal advice. If you're dealing with a serious case (coordinated review bombing, a defamatory review causing real financial harm), talk to a lawyer familiar with Ontario defamation or Competition Act matters.

How to Tell a Fake Review From a Real Bad Experience

Not every harsh review is fraudulent, and Google won't remove a review just because it's unflattering. Before you report anything, run it through this checklist:

No matching record. You can't find any booking, invoice, appointment, or order that matches the name, date, or details mentioned.
Vague or generic language. The review could have been left for almost any business: no mention of your staff, product, location, or specific service.
Posted by a competitor or ex-employee. Sometimes obvious from their profile, their other reviews, or timing tied to a dispute or termination.
Part of a cluster. Several similar reviews land within hours of each other, often from accounts with no other review history, a common sign of review bombing.
Violates Google's content policies directly. Hate speech, threats, off-topic rants, spam links, or a reviewer with an obvious conflict of interest (a competing business owner reviewing you, for example).

If none of these apply and it's simply a real customer who had a bad experience, the better move is a calm, professional public response, not a removal request. For a full walkthrough on that, see our guide on how to respond to negative Google reviews.

Step-by-Step: How to Report a Fake Review on Google

Step 1: Flag it through your Business Profile

Sign in to your Google Business Profile.
Go to the Reviews tab and find the review.
Click the three-dot menu next to it.
Select Flag as inappropriate.
Choose the reason that matches the violation: spam, fake engagement, conflict of interest, harassment, and so on.

This sends it into Google's moderation queue. There's no guaranteed timeline. It can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, and Google won't notify you when a decision is made, so you have to check back.

Step 2: Escalate through Google Business Profile Support

If flagging alone hasn't resolved it within two weeks:

Open Google Business Profile Help from your dashboard.
Select Contact Us, then the option for reviews.
State clearly and specifically why it violates policy. Reference the actual policy category rather than just saying it's unfair.
Attach evidence where you have it: booking records, staff schedules, payment logs, or anything showing no match to a real customer or transaction.

A specific, documented request moves faster than a general complaint. "This reviewer has no record as a client and appears to be a former employee terminated in March" beats "this review is unfair" every time.

Step 3: Use the Google Business Profile Community forum

If support hasn't resolved it, the Google Business Profile Community lets Product Experts and moderators look at cases that are stuck in the queue. Post your business name, the review in question, and the specific policy violation.

Step 4: Report it to the Competition Bureau (for clear-cut fraudulent cases)

For serious cases (a coordinated fake review campaign, a competitor buying negative reviews against you, or a broker offering to sell you fake reviews), you can file a complaint directly with the Competition Bureau. This won't get a single review removed quickly, but it creates a formal record and, in aggregated cases, has led to real enforcement action before.

What to Do While You Wait for Removal

Removal isn't guaranteed, and even a strong, well-documented request can take time. In the meantime:

Respond publicly and professionally. A calm, factual reply shows every future customer how you handle problems, even if the review is still visible.
Stick to facts, not defensiveness. "We have no record of this transaction and have reported this review for violating Google's policies" lands better than an emotional rebuttal.
Don't let it consume your week. One review, fake or not, rarely moves the needle on its own. What actually determines the damage is what surrounds it, which brings us to the real fix.

For templates and examples you can adapt directly, see our post on how to respond to customer reviews, which covers both positive and negative situations with sample language.

The Real Fix Isn't Removal: It's Volume

Here's the pattern almost every business with a fake-review problem shares: they don't have a fake review problem. They have a thin profile problem.

A business with 6 total reviews gets visibly wrecked by one fake one-star rating. It might be a third of their entire rating average. A business with 150 real reviews barely notices it, and any reader scrolling past can see it's obviously out of place next to a wall of specific, genuine feedback.

That's the actual lesson here. Removal fights a symptom. Review volume from real customers is the only thing that makes a single fake review structurally unable to hurt you.

Most local businesses ask for reviews inconsistently, if at all, usually only remembering when someone visibly loved the experience, which happens rarely and relies on staff remembering in the moment. That's the gap. If you want the exact mechanics of fixing that gap, we've broken it down in how to get more Google reviews for your business and how QR codes help businesses get more Google reviews.

This is also the whole idea behind Bloom Reviews. Every customer gets a simple, consistent prompt at the right moment: a QR code scan that takes 10 seconds. Happy customers get routed straight to leave a Google review. Unhappy ones get caught privately, before anything hits your public profile. It won't get a fake review deleted for you. But it makes sure that when one shows up, it's a rounding error instead of a crisis.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue someone for leaving a fake review in Ontario? Potentially, under defamation law, if the review contains false statements of fact (not just opinion) that damage your reputation. This is a real but slow and costly route, generally worth pursuing only for serious, high-impact cases. Talk to a lawyer before going down this path. It isn't the right first move for most fake reviews.

How long does Google take to remove a reported review? There's no fixed timeline. Straightforward policy violations (spam, obvious bot content) are sometimes resolved within days. Ambiguous cases can take weeks, and some flagged reviews are never removed if Google's moderators don't find a clear policy violation.

Will Google tell me why a review wasn't removed? Not usually, and not in detail. You'll typically only see whether the review is still up or gone, without a specific explanation either way.

Can I respond to a fake review before it's removed? Yes, and you should. A professional public response protects your reputation for anyone reading the review while removal is pending. See our guide on how to respond to negative Google reviews for exact language you can use.

Is it illegal for a competitor to leave a fake negative review about my business? Yes. Under the Competition Act, false or misleading representations made to harm a competitor's business are prohibited, and the Competition Bureau has pursued cases involving undisclosed reviews from people with a business interest in the outcome.

What's the fastest way to protect my rating long-term? Consistent review volume from real customers. A profile with a steady stream of genuine, recent reviews makes any single fake review statistically and visibly irrelevant. See review management software for small businesses for what a consistent system looks like in practice.