The FTC orders Sitejabber to stop faking product reviews

The Federal Trade Commission has charged Sitejabber, an online reappraisal platform, with violating its caller fake reviews rules by utilizing point-of-sale reviews to misrepresent what customers deliberation astir products. In 1 of its archetypal enforcement actions nether new rules banning companies from making oregon selling fake reviews, the FTC is ordering the institution to stop.

The FTC says Sitejabber “deceptively” punched up businesses’ reappraisal counts by incorporating responses to point-of-sale questionnaires asking customers to complaint and reappraisal their buying experience, earlier they’d really gotten immoderate products oregon services. It besides alleges that by giving its clients tools to people that feedback connected their ain sites, Sitejabber enabled them to mislead radical to deliberation the ratings and reviews were based connected existent acquisition with what the companies were selling.

The FTC now forbids Sitejabber from “misrepresenting, oregon assisting anyone other successful misrepresenting” that specified reviews are based connected lawsuit acquisition with a merchandise oregon service. The institution is besides barred from helping different companies misrepresent the reviews that “it collects, moderates, oregon displays.”

The regulator’s caller anti-fake reappraisal rules, which went into effect last month, purpose to code AI-generated reviews online, including connected Amazon and different e-commerce sites. The FTC prohibits a swath of deceptive practices, specified arsenic offering incentives to permission feedback oregon creating a fake reappraisal website that seems autarkic but is really owned by the precise institution that makes the products being reviewed. Or astatine least, it volition for the adjacent mates of months, aft which the adjacent US President volition beryllium sworn successful and (probably) regenerate its enactment — and we’ll spot what happens next.