A controversial new ratings system by TripAdvisor has been scrapped due to an outcry from businesses.

The rating format allowed users to give businesses a mark out of five without having to justify their choice with a written review.

Online reputation management company KwikChex, described the attempted rating system as "baffling".

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“It seems astonishing that at a time when there is rising concern about deception and malice on the web and a growing desire for greater reliability and an end to anonymous bullying, that TripAdvisor should apparently introduce the least diligent system yet and produce greater levels of mistrust and distortion,” asserted chief executive KwikChex, Chris Emmins.

He added that the company had been contacted by hundreds of concerned businesses and questioned whether the ratings were subject to the same fraud checks that TripAdvisor uses when screening reviews.

Emmins continued that he believed around 30 million reviews on TripAdvisor were redundant due to being “ridiculously out of date”.

A spokesperson for TripAdvisor said the new system had been in development but would be removed from the site following complaints.

"We’re always trying to make TripAdvisor even better for both travellers and businesses, and as an innovative tech company we constantly test new features to make the site even more useful," said Emma Shaw, a spokesperson for the website.

"We are always open to the results of these tests and have listened to the valuable feedback we have had over the past few days. From this feedback, we recognise we have some work to do to ensure that ratings are as useful as they can be and so we have decided to remove displaying ratings from a business’s listing page today."

The Advertising Standards Authority has already ruled that TripAdvisor can no longer claim all its reviews are "honest", "real" or "trusted".