CMA to investigate misleading online reviews

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Online customer review

Consumer reviews of products and services help online shoppers decide how to spend their money, but how reliable are those reviews?

To find out, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation that will examine whether major websites are doing enough to protect shoppers from fake and misleading reviews.

The CMA intends to 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.

The aim is 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.

The CMA said it is not currently alleging that any website has acted illegally. However, if it finds that any of the sites examined are not doing what is legally required the watchdog will take enforcement action to secure changes.

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.'

Instagram has already pledged to tackle the risk that people can buy and sell fake online reviews through its platform.

 

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