Synthetic consumers: Illegal?

The Times of London says that in the U.K.:

Hotels, restaurants and online shops that post glowing reviews about themselves under false identities could face criminal prosecution under new rules that come into force next year.

Businesses which write fake blog entries or create whole wesbites purporting to be from customers will fall foul of a European directive banning them from “falsely representing oneself as a consumer”.

Nothing like this is going on the U.S. that I’m aware of, so all you American murketers can carry as normal.