As people rely increasingly on shopping online during the
lockdown, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will
examine how these sites currently detect, investigate and respond
to fake and misleading reviews. It will look into issues such as:
-
suspicious reviews – where, for example, a single user has
reviewed an unlikely range of products or services;
-
whether businesses are manipulating the presentation of
reviews about their products and services by, for example,
combining positive reviews for one product with the reviews
for another; and
-
how these websites handle reviews about products or services
that the reviewer has received a payment or other incentive
to review.
Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the CMA, said:
Most of us read online reviews to help decide which products or
services to buy. During lockdown, we’re more dependent than
ever on online shopping, so it’s really important that the
online reviews we read are genuine opinions. If someone is
persuaded to buy something after reading a fake or misleading
review, they could end up wasting their money on a product or
service that wasn’t what they wanted.
Our investigation will examine whether several major websites
are doing enough to crack down on fake reviews. And we will not
hesitate to take further action if we find evidence that they
aren’t doing what’s required under the law.
The CMA is not currently alleging that any website has acted
illegally. Through this work, the CMA wants to ensure that the
sites have robust systems in place to find and remove fake
reviews or reviews that mislead people about a product or
business. But if it finds that any of these websites are not
doing what is legally required, the CMA will take enforcement
action to secure the necessary changes, pursuing action through
the courts if needed. If appropriate, the CMA will identify the
companies involved at this point.
This announcement comes as the CMA has secured commitments from
Instagram, which is operated by Facebook, to tackle the risk that
people can buy and sell fake online reviews through its platform.
Instagram has committed to provide for more robust systems to
detect and remove this kind of harmful material from Instagram.
This builds on the CMA’s previous work on online reviews, where
it identified the trading of of fake reviews on Facebook and eBay
and secured commitments from them to tackle this issue. The CMA
is not alleging that Facebook, eBay or Instagram intentionally
allowed this content to appear on their websites.
For more information, visit the online reviews web
page.
