Google pledged to crack down on fake online reviews with tougher punishments for rogue reviewers and businesses that try to profit from them, British regulators said Friday following an investigation.

Google will do more to tackle fake reviews, including sanctioning UK businesses and people involved in manipulating star ratings, Britain's competition regulator said on Friday following a lengthy investigation.

Businesses which boost their star ratings will have warnings attached to them - fake reviewers will be banned.

This includes deactivating the ability to add new reviews for businesses found to be using fake reviews, and deleting all existing reviews for at least six months if they repeated

Britain's competition regulator said on Friday it had secured important changes from Google to tackle fake reviews, including to sanction UK businesses that have boosted their star ratings with fake or misleading reviews.

Google has committed to cracking down on fake reviews by improving fraud detection and punishing offenders. Businesses using shady tactics will lose the ability to submit reviews or have existing ones wiped for at least six months.