How a Google Maps update exposes manipulated ratings in Germany

A small update to the Google Maps app is making it easier for customers to identify those businesses which have really earned their high customer ratings versus those which have simply gotten rid of most of the bad ones. 

This means that telling fact from fiction, when it comes to customer reviews, has become easier as long as you know where to look in the app.

And yes, it turns out this is a Germany-specific issue.

Whether you’re searching for a new restaurant or café to try, or seeking a bookstore or a masseuse or even a dentist, Google Maps is the go-to app for many people for both navigating the world and finding the businesses they need. 

Customer reviews, and the composite ratings they amount to, are therefore especially important for hospitality businesses, and those offering competitive services. In deciding where to eat, many people might limit their choices to those restaurants which have ratings of 4.5 stars or higher, for example.

What’s changed in Google Maps?

Recently Google Maps added a new feature to the business profile pages in its app.

Now customers can see a note about how many reviews a business has removed “due to defamation” directly under the businesses rating.

Screenshot of a restaurant’s page in Google Maps with a high number of ‘defamation complaints’.

The note simply states how many times a business has asked Google to remove a customer review that they claimed was defamation. 

But, with some businesses in Germany having had hundreds of reviews removed for ‘defamation’, this helps Google Maps users differentiate between the businesses that have maintained a more transparent rating versus those that may have effectively deleted all the worst reviews.

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Germany’s one-sided defamation law 

The background is that defamation law in Germany is arguably designed to protect businesses, and that the way Google reviews are managed had previously allowed unscrupulous German businesses to simply have all their worst ratings swept under the rug for years.

German law gives companies a fair amount of leverage to protect their reputation, and that extends online.

Google, in turn, is effectively on the hook to act and remove defamatory reviews.

How this plays out is that a restaurant can simply fill out a form online to say that a review is defamatory. They might suggest that they have no record of the review writer being a real customer, for example.

Google would then remove the review temporarily, and follow up with the review writer, who would then need to initiate an appeal process within a relatively short timeframe. They may also need to provide proof to back up their claim, such as a receipt or photos.

Naturally, in many cases the appeals go unanswered and the reviews simply get deleted.

Of course some businesses do face defamation online and there should be a simple way complain about or even delete defamatory reviews. But the stats make it clear that businesses in Germany in particular have been manipulating the system.

According to the Berlin Consumer Centre, 99.97 percent of all Google Maps reviews removed for defamation in the EU came exclusively from Germany in 2025.

Or, while about 1.6 million reviews were deleted in Germany last year, just 450 were deleted in all the other 27 EU countries.

What does this mean for customers?

To be clear, Google hasn’t changed its defamation complaint review process nor does it have the power to alter Germany’s defamation law.

But by shedding light on the number of reviews each business has had removed, it adds a layer of transparency to the process.

So, if you’re going to choose where to eat in Germany based on Google’s review ratings, you may as well double check just how many of those review have been deleted.

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