The measure aims to protect tourism and the hotel and catering industry, and is part of an amendment to the Customer Services Act, which is currently in the final stages of parliamentary processing, to modify the General Law for the Defence of Consumers.

With regard to the first novelty, unlike the proposal made in Italy, the business in Spain must prove reliably that the review is not real, regardless of the reasons presented, which can be: the consumer has not bought the product or enjoyed the service, or because its content is not truthful.

"As this is a general rule, it does not specify how the trader must prove the lack of truthfulness of the review, and it is possible to use elements adapted to the specific case: evidence showing that an invoice shown in the review has been manipulated or that the prices referred to in the reviews are not real, for example," explained Consumer Affairs, quoted by RTVE.

In addition to these new features, the ministry recalled other current initiatives already present in the law, such as the prohibition of buying and selling reviews or the obligation to indicate whether the review has been verified as having been submitted by a real consumer.