A bad review can really mess up your plans. It does not matter if you like the brand or not. People just tend to believe other people much more than the company advertised. That is why positive reviews are crucial for a commercial brand image. Amazon.com is the largest internet based retailer in the United States which has recently encountered a massive wave of deceptive customer reviews. Finally, America’s favorite online shopping platform is taking legal actions against fake reviews.
The plan is to sue the sellers which are allegedly boosting their ratings by faking positive customer reviews. Amazon has not previously sued the sellers themselves. Before, it targeted only the people and the services responsible for review fraud. Nevertheless, legal actions against the companies appear to be the last resort for making Amazon.com more user-friendly. Fake customer review filtering will prohibit other Amazon sellers from engaging in such activities. Amazon.com has filed multiple demands against three sellers on the platform, that are allegedly involved in fraudulent actions. The company seeks to ban these companies from the platform and prohibit establishing any accounts for commercial purposes. These companies are allegedly purchasing positive customer reviews on their products.
Amazon has been filing lawsuits against reviewers since the beginning of 2015. Among them were 1.000 alleged users of Fiverr.com who have supposedly sold positive reviews for 5$ each. Demands were filed against Michael Abbara a resident of Fullerton, CA., who is allegedly an operator and owner of the Amazon seller “REPZ”; Amazon seller CCbetter Direct of China and Kurt Bauer of York, PA., allegedly associated with Amazon seller Barclin Home Products.
Due to their policy against commenting on litigation, Amazon has refused to elaborate on any legal action taken so far against the reviews. Amazon spokeswoman Julie Law stated “As always, it is important for customers to know that these remain a very small fraction of the reviews on Amazon and we introduced a review ranking system so that the most recent, helpful reviews appear first. The vast majority of reviews on Amazon are authentic, helping millions of customers make informed buying decisions every day. Our goal is to eliminate the incentives for sellers to engage in review abuse and shut down this ecosystem around fraudulent reviews in exchange for compensation. Lawsuits are only one piece of the puzzle. We are working hard on technologies that allow us to detect and take enforcement action against perpetrators while also preventing fake reviews from ever surfacing.”
Consumer Law Magazine is aimed to raise awareness among Consumers and help you through the legal process.
Stay tuned for more information and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
