The FTC and the attorney generals of several states are gearing up to to crack down on false or manipulated reviews.
Elaine S. Povich | Stateline.org
“It’s a real problem for both consumers and business,” said Daniel Castro, director of the Center for Data Innovation, which published a report in September on the issue. “It can cause financial losses, bad purchases and physical injury.” For example, if a device that is supposed to protect against slippery surfaces fails, it can cause injury, he said.
Few states have laws or regulations specifically targeting online reviews, he said. Consumer-friendly states, such as California, Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts, use their broad consumer protection laws to go after miscreants, while many other states are silent on the issue, he said, or have weak laws.
Last week, the FTC announced it is exploring tougher rules to combat fake reviews, the suppression of negative reviews and payments for positive reviews and served notice in the Federal Register that it is soliciting public comments on the proposed rule through January. Bonta said he thinks California’s unfair competition laws and regulations are sufficient but said the FTC’s decision to seek comment on proposed new, tougher federal regulations has merit. “The more watchdogs on the block the more regulations and laws on this, the better,” he said.
Cleland and the other experts said consumers, meanwhile, can do a few things to temper their reliance on online reviews, such as checking a variety of sources for reviews, and checking whether certain reviewers have reviewed lots of other unrelated items and what they recommended, studying the language of the reviews to check for generalities versus specifics and viewing them all skeptically, especially overly positive or negative ones.
Companies, she said, “can and do purchase fake reviews.” She advises consumers to research the reviews and look to see whether the FTC or the Better Business Bureau have any cases involving the companies and whether the reviews of a product are from those who have actually bought the product.
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