LöscheuleA review that compares your prices with those of the shop two streets away and then helpfully adds its address rarely comes from a customer. For Google, this is not a borderline case, but one it addresses explicitly.
Google’s category for this is Rating Manipulation
Google requires a contribution to be based on a real experience. Under Rating Manipulation, Google lists content based on a conflict of interest, and it names competitors in the same industry there just as it names former employment or family ties.
It is also explicitly not allowed to post content about a competitor’s place in order to damage its reputation. That is exactly the case discussed here.
What it can be pinned on
The best clue is in the text: a recommendation for another business, a price comparison with an address, trade jargon from inside the industry that a customer would not know.
The second best is in the author’s account. A public profile shows what else the person has reviewed. Five stars for a business in the same industry in the same town and one star for you is a pattern that can be described.
What is not enough: your own guess about who is behind it. For Google, what counts is what the contribution and the profile show.
What makes a report hold up
Describe what can be observed, not the person. What is in the text, what can be seen in the profile, how the two are connected. A name does not belong in the report, and accusations against a named person turn it into something other than it should be.
Screenshots of the contribution and the profile are useful, because both can change at any time. Otherwise a deleted profile takes half your explanation with it.
What makes the damage worse
Replying publicly that the author is the competition rarely helps. It cannot be proven in a reply, it reads like an excuse to strangers, and it draws attention to the review.
Leaving a review for the other business in return is the worst option of all: you would be violating the very rule you are relying on.
Key points
Google addresses this case explicitly. What matters is not that you know who wrote it, but that it becomes visible in the contribution or the profile.
Does this apply to one of your reviews?
We look at your profile free of charge and tell you which reviews Google is likely to remove under its policies.
These texts explain Google’s policies, not the legal situation. Löscheule is not a legal services provider within the meaning of § 2 RDG (German Legal Services Act). If your case is a legal dispute, you need a lawyer.