Google policy citation
Factually false claims
The hardest category to win, and the one most often attempted. A review stating something verifiably untrue — not merely unfair — can be filed, but only where a document contradicts it. Opinion is never covered.
What Google says
“Don't post content that is deliberately fake, deceptive, or designed to mislead. We remove content that misrepresents what a business offers or what happened during an experience.”See Google's full content policy hub
Qualifies for removal
- →Review states a price you can disprove with a signed estimate or invoice the reviewer agreed to
- →Review claims a service you demonstrably do not offer and never have
- →Review describes a visit on a date the business was verifiably closed
- →Review attributes an incident to you that documented records place at another business
Does NOT qualify
- →'They overcharged me' — a judgement about value, not a factual claim
- →'The work was terrible' — opinion, however strongly you disagree
- →A customer misremembering a detail in an otherwise genuine account
- →Anything where you can only contradict the claim with your own word
Evidence that clears this clause
Whoever reads your report can see the review, the reviewer's public profile and your listing. Nothing else. Anything that lives only in your own systems has to be described, not assumed.
- A specific factual claim that your records contradict — a price, a date, a service performed
- Documentation that survives being read by a stranger: an invoice, a signed job sheet, a contract
- Claims about a legal outcome, licence or certification that public records disprove
- A description of an event on a date you were demonstrably closed
The mistake that gets this rejected
Filing on an opinion. "Overpriced" and "the worst service in town" are not factual claims and are protected however wrong they feel. This clause needs a checkable statement of fact, not a judgement.
Questions about this clause
The review says I overcharged. Does that qualify?
Only if it names a figure you can show is wrong. "They charged me $400 for X" is a factual claim you can contradict with an invoice. "They overcharge" is an opinion and stays up.
Do I have to send Google my invoices?
You describe what the record shows rather than attaching your books. Filings that state the contradiction plainly and specifically do the work.
Want this policy applied to your reviews?
Run the free audit and we'll score every review on your listing against this policy and the others. No card, no signup to see the report. You're billed only when Google actually removes a review.
The other policy categories
Full breakdown: Google review policy violations explained · remove fake Google reviews · straight answers · by industry
The other content-policy categories
A review often breaks more than one clause at once, and the strongest filing names the clause with the cleanest evidence rather than all of them.
How this plays out in your trade
The same policy clause gets abused differently depending on the business. These pages cover the attack patterns we see most often per trade.