Misleading address on bad-faith competitor profile – redressal forms ignored for months

[MiguelP]

Hi everyone,

I'm a business owner in Geneva, Switzerland, dealing with a bad-faith competitor's Google Business Profile that displays a misleading local address. The operator has no registered legal entity in Switzerland and appears to operate from another country, yet presents itself as a local Geneva business. This is not the first instance — the profile has previously displayed other Geneva addresses that were documented as fictitious, suggesting a repeated pattern of misleading conduct. The business name is also confusingly similar to our registered trademark.

I've submitted multiple redressal forms over several months, with no response or visible action from Google. My previous post on the GBP community forum was also locked without explanation, which I suspect may have been a spam filter issue.

I have a complete evidence package ready to share privately with anyone who can help, including trademark registration, address documentation, and screenshots.

Has anyone successfully escalated this type of issue? Any advice on next steps would be very welcome.


Thank you.

 

[ElizabethRule]

Map spam like this can be very hard to prove and get removed, especially if the business does exist and they are just using a fraudulent address. What is the business listing in question? It would be helpful to have a look.

 

[MiguelP]

Map spam like this can be very hard to prove and get removed, especially if the business does exist and they are just using a fraudulent address. What is the business listing in question? It would be helpful to have a look.

Thank you for taking a look. Here is the listing in question:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D...VlZGTTFrell4QULgAQD6AQQIABBF!16s/g/11ys98sz1f

And for reference, here is our own listing:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D...VVZLVm1KdVl4QULgAQD6AQQIABAp!16s/g/11cmd0scvv

To add some specifics not mentioned in my original post: this operator has used three different Geneva addresses on this listing, all located within a few meters of our actual business. The first two were fictitious (confirmed in writing by the building managers and the postal service). The current address is a virtual office operated by Satellite Office Genève. The operator is registered in France under a different name and has no registered legal entity in Switzerland under the name used on the listing.

Happy to share detailed documentation privately if that would be helpful.

 

[Melania1986]

Hi everyone,

I'm a business owner in Geneva, Switzerland, dealing with a bad-faith competitor's Google Business Profile that displays a misleading local address. The operator has no registered legal entity in Switzerland and appears to operate from another country, yet presents itself as a local Geneva business. This is not the first instance — the profile has previously displayed other Geneva addresses that were documented as fictitious, suggesting a repeated pattern of misleading conduct. The business name is also confusingly similar to our registered trademark.

I've submitted multiple redressal forms over several months, with no response or visible action from Google. My previous post on the GBP community forum was also locked without explanation, which I suspect may have been a spam filter issue.

I have a complete evidence package ready to share privately with anyone who can help, including trademark registration, address documentation, and screenshots.

Has anyone successfully escalated this type of issue? Any advice on next steps would be very welcome.


Thank you.

Hi, I suggested an edit for "does not exist here" and "shocking, pernicious information about your dishonest competitor".

 

[ElizabethRule]

The business may have some sort of address in the city they were able to use to verify. You can report them to Google here https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_redressal_form

But you need proof they are not a real business in the area. If you think they are not actually at this address and you can prove that to Google, that may be the best angle.

 

[Marian Leonte]

Been through this a few times and the Business Redressal Form on its own is basically a black hole, so do not lean on it alone. Two things actually move the needle. First, the virtual office angle is your strongest card. If Satellite Office openly advertises virtual or co-working space at that address, screenshot their own site and submit that as proof the competitor is not physically there, since Google's guidelines do not allow virtual offices. Second, get a few different people to use Suggest an edit in Maps and mark the place as not here, with a photo of the actual building. Several independent edits carry more weight than one form. The trademark-similar name is a separate issue, use Google's trademark complaint process for that, not the spam form. It is slow and you will probably have to refile, but that combination is what gets these pulled.

 

[MiguelP]

First of all, apologies for my delayed reply. I had not realised that I was not receiving notifications from this thread.

Thank you very much to @Melania1986 @ElizabethRule and @Marian Leonte for taking the time to reply and offer advice.

When I first opened this thread, the profile was already displaying its third fake Geneva address, which I had documented with dated screenshots and written confirmations. It has since changed again and now displays Rue de la Corraterie 5, an address marketed by Satellite Office Genève for virtual-office services.

I have kept all the evidence concerning the previous addresses and the current location. I could also find no permanent DEPANN’INFO signage there.

Google’s guidelines say that a virtual mailing office is not eligible and that a business operating from a coworking location must have clear signage, receive customers there and be staffed by its own personnel during business hours. The current situation therefore seems inconsistent with those guidelines and should at least be verified.

@ElizabethRule , you were right to say that proof is essential. Would you be willing to look at a short, redacted evidence package by private message? I can provide evidence showing that the previous addresses were fake, that the current address is operated by a virtual-office provider, and photos showing that there is no DEPANN’INFO signage anywhere outside the building, as well as any other information you may need.

There is now another serious issue with the same profile: its reviews.

The profile currently displays 116 reviews within approximately eight months of visible history. In a comparison with eight other organic Google Maps results for computer repair in Geneva, the median was 25 reviews and the average was 30.1, even though several of those businesses have been operating locally for years.

Of the 116 current ratings, 114 are five-star and two are one-star, with no two-, three- or four-star ratings at all. Many of the reviews I examined appear in compressed five-star clusters, come from accounts with only one to three contributions, contain no real detail or use generic and unusually search-oriented commercial wording.

These reviews look highly suspicious and show several of the indicators associated with possible fake engagement. Google itself confirms that review volume and positive ratings can improve local ranking, so if part of this activity is not genuine, it can distort the business’s competitive visibility.

Honestly, it feels like this business just keeps finding new ways to game Google — first with a series of fake addresses and now with a review profile that simply does not add up. I have spent months collecting evidence and reporting these issues, and I am getting pretty desperate because I honestly do not know what else I am supposed to do to get someone to look at the whole picture.

@ElizabethRule , would you recommend opening a separate thread specifically about the review pattern, or would it be better to continue discussing it here because it concerns the same profile?

Thank you again for your help.