Frequently asked questions

Fametrue is an independent reputation intelligence company that analyses and certifies the integrity of the process by which businesses collect online reviews. It is not a review platform, but an independent third party that verifies whether a brand's public reputation reflects the real experience of its customers, and certifies that it meets the FameCert requirements, which are aligned with the rules on consumer reviews in the UK and the EU.

No. Fametrue does not collect reviews, does not solicit them and does not manage them on the client's behalf. Within the certification journey it sets out the requirements a correct collection process must meet, but it does not administer it. This separation is deliberate, because whoever collects and manages reviews cannot then certify them independently. Fametrue defines the criteria and verifies them. It photographs, it does not manipulate.

Google, Trustpilot and Feefo are platforms that host and collect reviews. Fametrue does not compete with them, it operates differently. It analyses a brand's reputation across the various platforms and certifies its integrity as an independent third party. Where the platform shows a score, Fametrue verifies whether that score is representative of the real customer experience.

Fametrue is aimed at organisations for which reputation is a strategic asset and a risk factor, in any sector. It matters most where review collection is high-volume, regulatory exposure is concrete and the Risk, Compliance and Legal functions play a role in reputational decisions, as with banks, insurers, utilities, telcos, fintech, e-commerce and online education.

Fametrue is aimed at organisations that collect reviews on an ongoing basis, whatever their size. For small local businesses with few customers and few reviews the certification journey is usually disproportionate, because the analysis needs sufficient volumes to be meaningful.

FameCert is the independent certification standard developed by Fametrue for the correct collection of online reviews. Through an independent audit, it attests that the process by which a business collects reviews does not exclude dissatisfied customers from invitations, does not incentivise positive ratings and does not strategically remove negative reviews.

FameCert certifies that the process by which a brand collects reviews meets the public requirements of the standard, and that reviews and score are displayed transparently on the brand's website. It does not certify the quality of the product or service, does not concern the level of the score and does not guarantee it.

FameCert offers three benefits. On compliance, it produces documentation and an audit of the collection process, immediately available in the event of a regulatory check. On the competitive side, it is a signal of integrity recognisable by the market and by AI systems. On reputation, it distinguishes the brand as a transparent operator in a market where review manipulation is widespread.

FameCert certification is valid for twelve months and is renewed through a dedicated annual audit. Throughout this period Fametrue monitors the certified brand's reputational profile. When it detects an anomaly against the requirements it notifies the brand, which has 30 days to explain or correct it, and the certificate may be confirmed, suspended or revoked. In serious cases suspension can be immediate.

Fametrue analyses a brand's public reputation across the main review platforms, comparing what the public score shows with the real perception of the service, which Fametrue reconstructs from public reviews by correcting both the selection of invitations and the imbalance of spontaneous reviews. It assesses the representativeness of the collection, the integrity of the process and the level of associated regulatory risk.

The client receives an analysis of their reputational profile with three key indices (FameIndex, FameIntegrity, FameRisk), a comparison with their sector, evidence of critical elements and, where applicable, the journey towards FameCert certification. The analysis is available as a report and/or through a dedicated dashboard.

The initial analysis starts from the brand's public profiles, it does not require access to the client's internal systems. For the certification journey, during the audit phase, the internal invitation and collection procedures provided by the brand are also examined.

The initial analysis of the reputational profile is produced quickly and represents the first step of the journey. The overall duration of the certification instead depends on the brand's starting situation and the speed with which it adapts its process to the FameCert criteria.

They are Fametrue's three proprietary indices. FameIndex expresses the real perception of the service on a scale from 1 to 5, estimated by correcting both the selection of invitations and the imbalance of spontaneous reviews. FameIntegrity measures the integrity of the collection process, as a percentage. FameRisk assesses the level of regulatory risk associated with the collection. Together, they provide a complete reputational picture that the public score alone does not offer.

It means that the score visible on a platform does not reflect the real experience of customers, because the collection has been selective. When a business solicits reviews mainly at the most favourable moments and from the most satisfied customers, the public score rises, but it leaves out critical experiences. The distance between the public score and the real perception measures precisely this gap.

Because the manipulation of reviews is a banned commercial practice under consumer protection law. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) explicitly prohibits fake and misleading reviews, with significant penalties; equivalent rules apply across the EU. Regulators have begun to intervene with investigations and substantial fines. A non-representative collection therefore exposes a business to concrete, not merely theoretical, risk.

Fametrue helps reduce the risk of an investigation for unfair practices being opened, by providing documentary evidence of the transparency of the process. It does not guarantee the outcome of any proceedings, but it puts the business in a position to already have ready the documentation a regulator would request, reducing the time and cost of a defence. It also reduces the reputational risk linked to the discovery of a non-representative collection.

A growing and decisive role. Generative AI systems no longer just display a score: they read and synthesise the content of reviews to form a judgement about a brand and to guide consumer choices. A company's reputation increasingly passes through the way AI systems interpret and recommend it.

Because AI systems synthesise the sentiment of reviews without distinguishing a genuine collection from a constructed one. If a brand's profile has been inflated with selectively solicited reviews, the AI absorbs that sentiment as authentic and tends to endorse the public score, amplifying a reputation that does not reflect the real experience. This, however, creates a deferred risk. Manipulation-detection technologies are improving, and when an AI system or a regulator recognises that the collection was constructed, the brand pays the price for the accumulated history too. A reputation inflated today becomes a reputational debt tomorrow.

Because AI systems look for signals of verifiability and third-party sources to validate information. An independent certification, based on public criteria and on an audit carried out by a party that does not collect the reviews, is exactly the kind of reference an AI can recognise as trustworthy, distinguishing it from a raw and potentially manipulable score. FameCert provides AI systems with a verifiable anchor of integrity.