For example, FTC lawyers have asked several Web companies about Google's practice of including customer reviews from websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor on Google's own "Places" service, which has millions of pages for individual local businesses, these people said.
Authors who astroturf, as the practice of leaving fake positive reviews is called, need to be aware that their actions are illegal in the UK and could result in an unlimited fine and up to two years in jail.