The Federal Trade Commission, that’s who!
It’s important to realize that the fake online reviews are being more deeply investigated than ever before. As a matter of fact, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is cracking down on fake online reviews. As a result, they have recently settled two court cases. Both cases are against companies who allegedly paid for fake online reviews. Let’s look at each case separately…
Dietary supplement fake online reviews
Cure Encapsulations settled in March, 2019 on charges that they commissioned fake online reviews on a dietary supplement:
According to the FTC, the defendants paid a website to create fake online reviews of Quality Encapsulations and to post the fake reviews on Amazon’s website so that their product would attain high rankings in search results and customer ratings.
Mondaq.com
Snack box subscription fake online reviews
similarly, the FTC also settled with UrthBox, a mail-order snack box subscription company. This one’s actually a bit worrisome…
According to the FTC complaint, UrthBox offered some customers free products in return for their positive fake online reviews. From our understanding of the laws surrounding reviews, offering customers incentives to give reviews is perfectly legal. That being said, this is only the case as long as…
- The company being reviewed does not require that the customer post a positive review.
- The customer discloses the fact that they were offered an incentive by the company they’re reviewing within their review.
UrthBox was held liable for the actions of their reviewers, and that is what’s especially troubling about this case.
The FTC alleges that UrthBox failed to adequately disclose that some consumers received compensation, including free snack boxes, to post those positive reviews.
FTC.gov
I’ll admit, exactly how UrthBox could force their reviewers to disclose the incentive they received is beyond me. Be that as it may, the best they could do is to inform customers that they need to disclose the free product.
Review incentives and best practices
In summary, this should serve as warning. Companies that give customers free products, gifts, or other incentives to write reviews must be cautious. First, always communicate to your customers that the incentive must be mentioned. Secondly, never ask for a positive review in exchange for an incentive.
The business of online reviews has become somewhat tricky. Avoid potential legal action – do all you can to avoid it. Let’s be careful out there!
For more in-depth information on fake reviews, read Why Fake Reviews May Be Criminal.
Tell us what you think! Tweet us @100_Reviews and share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you and maybe even feature you (or share your story) on an upcoming episode of the #ReviewChat Podcast!
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