Reliable CBD reviews? 6 signals to check on a review page
Whether a CBD review is reliable depends on how it was collected. An invited review starts from a recorded order; an open review starts from a statement nobody checked at the door. In France, any site that displays reviews must say whether it checks them, date each one and offer chronological sorting. Look for those items first, before the rating.
- 01Invited or open reviews: it all comes down to collection
- 02Six signals to look for on a review page
- 03What the checks found
- 04What the law bans and what it punishes
- 05Standards and labels: voluntary, and sometimes out of date
- 06What a review does not tell you about a CBD product
- 07Frequently asked questions
Key takeaways
- "Verified" is not defined in law, so each platform decides which check the word covers.
- Six items are required on a review page by the French Consumer Code, two dates per review among them.
- An EU check in 2022 found 144 of 223 websites unable to show that their reviews were genuine.
- Fake reviews published online can cost 5 years in prison and a €750,000 fine.
- Reviews describe orders; the composition of a lot is on its certificate of analysis.
Invited or open reviews: it all comes down to collection
Most reviews displayed online come through two channels, and each one asks the author a different question.
In the invited channel, the merchant hands its orders to a provider, which asks each buyer for a rating. Only invited people can post, and the purchase is established before the review exists. The weak point is the sample: the provider sees only the orders the merchant passes on.
In the open channel, anyone can post. Trustpilot's guidelines for reviewers, version 2.2 of June 2026, require reviewers to be over 18, to have had a genuine and recent experience, typically within the last 12 months, and to have received no incentive. No purchase is required: a phone call, an email, an online chat or a visit to an online store qualifies. Google's policy on user contributions likewise requires a genuine experience and bans paid reviews, without mentioning any proof of purchase.
| Channel | Who can post | Proof at entry | What the channel does not cover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open platform | Any adult who declares an experience | None, unless requested when in doubt | An invented but plausible experience |
| Business listing | Any account holder | None mentioned | Proof that a visit took place |
| Invited collection | The buyer whose order is passed on | The order itself | Which orders get passed on |
| Merchant's own module | Per the merchant's published rules | Per those rules | An independent referee, since the referee is also the seller |
None of these channels guarantees honest content and a representative sample at the same time. The useful question is which channel feeds the page you are reading, and the law makes the site say so.
Six signals to look for on a review page
Article L111-7-2 of the French Consumer Code applies to anyone who collects, moderates or publishes online reviews, whether merchant or platform. Article D111-10, which took over the content of the former D111-17 on 9 July 2024, lists what must be displayed.
| Signal | What you look for | Where | Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The check | A statement saying whether reviews are checked, and how | Next to the reviews | L111-7-2 and D111-10 |
| 2. Two dates | The date of the review and of the experience described | Under each review | D111-10 |
| 3. Chronological sorting | Newest to oldest among the sorting options | Above the reviews | D111-10 |
| 4. Incentives | Whether any benefit is offered in exchange for a review | Dedicated section | D111-10 |
| 5. Time limits | The maximum time to publish and to keep a review | Dedicated section | D111-10 |
| 6. Reason for rejection | A commitment to tell authors why their review is refused | Publication rules | L111-7-2 |
You can check the first three in a few seconds. A missing item proves no cheating; it does show an obligation left unmet.
A seventh marker has no legal basis: the spread of ratings, which tells you more than the average. A page with only top ratings and not one reservation about a delay or the packaging more often points to filtered collection than to unanimous customers.
What the checks found
In the EU, the European Commission published on 20 January 2022 the results of a sweep of online reviews. Together with the authorities of 26 Member States, Iceland and Norway, it examined 223 major online shops, marketplaces, booking sites and comparison sites.
Just 84 websites made the collection information available on the review page itself; the rest left it in their terms and conditions. The authorities concluded that at least 55% of the websites potentially breached EU law, with doubts over a further 18%.
In France, the government answered written question no. 04537 in the Senate on 26 June 2025. Since September 2023 the French fraud control authority has used a tool called Polygraphe, which collects and analyses published reviews and flags suspicious ones. More than 1,200 businesses had been checked since 1 July 2023. The question quoted a 2021 survey putting the share of fake reviews at 45%. That figure is an estimate, and the government's answer does not repeat it.
At platform level, Trustpilot's Trust Report states that 4.5 million of the 61 million reviews written in 2024 were removed as fake, or 7.4%. Of the fake reviews detected, 90% were removed automatically. The figure measures what was caught and cannot measure what slipped through.
What the law bans and what it punishes
Since 28 May 2022, when Directive (EU) 2019/2161 began to apply, Article L121-4 of the French Consumer Code has counted two practices among those deemed misleading:
- point 27: stating that reviews come from consumers who actually used or bought the product, without having taken the steps needed to check it;
- point 28: publishing fake reviews or having someone else publish them, or altering reviews to promote products.
Article L121-3 counts as material information the way a business ensures its reviews come from real customers, so keeping quiet about it can amount to a misleading omission.
Article L132-2 sets the penalties at 2 years in prison and a €300,000 fine. Since Law no. 2024-420 of 10 May 2024, they reach 5 years and €750,000 when the practice uses an online service, as any review published on a website does.
Standards and labels: voluntary, and sometimes out of date
The standard quoted most often on the subject is no longer in force. NF Z74-501, published by AFNOR in July 2013, is cancelled. NF ISO 20488 replaced it in September 2018 and covers the collection, moderation and publication of reviews.
This has two practical consequences. When a site says it follows "the standard" without naming it, check which one. And ignoring a standard is no offence, since these frameworks are voluntary, whereas the Consumer Code binds everyone.
Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services, which has applied to all platforms since 17 February 2024, has a different job. It organises the reporting of illegal content and appeals against removal, and gives no definition of a fake review. For shops and readers alike, the substantive rule is still Article L121-4.
What a review does not tell you about a CBD product
A review describes an order: how long delivery took, the packaging, a reply from customer service. The lot itself is outside its scope. Cannabinoid content, compliance with the 0.30% Δ⁹-THC threshold and screening for pesticides or heavy metals appear on a certificate of analysis, which a laboratory issues for a lot number. Our guide to reading a certificate of analysis goes through it line by line, and the laboratory page describes the measurement methods.
In the CBD flowers category, product pages show a reference level and the reference of the current lot; as of 18 October 2026, no laboratory certificate is published. Phytogrammes displayed no reviews as of 23 September 2026, and the home page reads "No review published to date". Only accounts that have actually ordered can use the module, and no review is imported or paid for.
Reviews are one signal among several that a shop is serious. The article on a legal CBD website lists the information an online shop must publish, and the FAQ collects common questions about the shop.
Frequently asked questions
Not necessarily, because the word has no legal definition. With an invited-review provider, it means the review followed an order the merchant passed on. Elsewhere it may mean the author supplied proof when the platform asked for it. The only obligation is to describe the check applied.
No single clue settles it. Start with the framework: a statement about checks, two dates per review, chronological sorting, disclosed incentives. Then look at how the ratings are spread. In the 2022 EU sweep, 118 of the 223 websites said nothing about preventing fake reviews.
It can refuse a review, provided it tells the author why. Altering reviews, or publishing fake ones to promote a product, falls under point 28 of Article L121-4, among the practices deemed misleading.
No. It was cancelled and replaced by NF ISO 20488 in September 2018, so it no longer exists. Standards on reviews are voluntary; the obligations come from the Consumer Code.
An average reflects the ordering experience. It tells you nothing about whether the product complies, which you check on the lot's certificate of analysis, or about whether the site publishes its legal information.
Written by the Phytogrammes team
Each journal article draws on cited primary sources: ANSM, EFSA, EUR-Lex and peer-reviewed publications. Product profiles are distinguished from documented laboratory results. Our approach.
Article published on . CBD is not a medicine.