Consumers often rely on product reviews before making a purchase. But fake reviews are becoming more common and harder to spot, and experts believe additional action by Congress and federal enforcement agencies is needed.
Fake reviews are often organized efforts by criminal gangs to positively or negatively impact a business or product. The reviews are designed to increase a product’s visibility on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Google while breaking the algorithms the platforms use to find such reviews, according to the nonprofit National. said John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud, Consumers League.Based in Washington DC
“What we are dealing with today is not only a systemic threat to consumers who may purchase substandard or, at worst, unsafe products, but also a threat to honest businesses.” Center for Data Innovation, part of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
State attorneys general and federal enforcement agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), have begun to tackle fake product reviews. But the nuances of how fake reviews are generated mean that it’s difficult to create blanket rules to address the problem.
Dealing with Fake Product Reviews
In August 2022, the FTC and six state attorneys general announced a rental listing platform that allegedly charged consumers looking for affordable housing to pay for fake reviews and access fake listings. filed a lawsuit against Roomster.
It was one of the first lawsuits filed by the FTC over fake reviews, and Roomster countered by filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in October 2022. Roomster argued that the FTC has no constitutional authority to proceed with the case. The company also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it cannot be held liable for user reviews under the Communications Decency Act.
In a court document, Roomster said, “We have always shared the government’s goal of protecting users from fraudsters, and we are committed to rapidly adapting Roomster’s anti-fraud program to the changing challenges posed by increasingly sophisticated fraudsters. I have always tried my best to
What we are now dealing with is not only the systemic threat to consumers who may purchase substandard or, at worst, unsafe products, but also the threat to honest businesses.
John BrayuteVice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud, National Consumers League
According to Dan Gilman, senior competition policy fellow at the Center for International Law and Economics and former FTC, Roomster’s case raises some of the more complex questions about fake reviews, including how to reach out to the international agencies that manipulate fake reviews. has not been touched. Lawyer Advisor. Gilman spoke at a webinar with Breyault.
He also said he didn’t address whether companies that incentivize consumers to leave reviews, either through discounts or financial rewards, should be held accountable.
“It’s a complex moving target,” Gilman said.
In October 2022, the FTC announced its intention to explore potential rules to combat false reviews and false endorsements and seeks comments from stakeholders on what such rules should entail. I asked.
For Breyault, for example, incentivized reviews must be labeled as such to provide transparency to businesses and consumers reading the reviews.
He said that if fake reviews go unchecked, it will erode trust in product reviews, causing long-term damage.
“They are a very powerful source of information that consumers use when making critical purchasing decisions,” said Brayau. “If we don’t take action, there will come a day when his reviews will become useless to consumers, with serious consequences.”
Makenzie Holland is a news writer covering big tech and federal regulation. Before she joined TechTarget’s editorial, wilmington star news crime and education reporter wabash plain dealer.
