What gating looks like to Google
Email flows that send five-star clickers to Google and one-star clickers to a private form violate policy. Google penalizes profiles and may scrutinize later owner disputes.
A home services brand in the USA had legitimate spam reviews denied because their CRM still ran a gating template from 2022.
Cleaning house before new disputes
Turn off selective routing, publish a neutral review invite, and document the change before opening enterprise tickets about competitor spam.
Honest recent reviews help moderators see your account in context.
Path forward for removal
Once gating stops, Google Review Removal success rates improve for clear fake reviews and conflict cases.
Fix process first, then book a free consultation if moderators still cite account history as a reason to delay.