*The case is directed at the administrators of 10,000 Facebook groups as market regulators argue when there is a paid effort to promote a particular product in the guise of a consumer review, it is highly deceptive and violates established regulations

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

In a move to protect consumers coupled with the growing pressure to curb the number of fake and deceptive product reviews on its Web site, Amazon is instituting a legal case against the administrators of 10,000 Facebook groups over claims that they have orchestrated the phony reviews for profit.

绿帽献妻 learnt Amazon alleged the defendants had recruited individuals who are willing to post misleading reviews on Amazon鈥檚 stores in the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan in return for products and cash.

Photo collage: GI

The global technology giant and foremost online retailer, which reportedly been prodded by the US Congress to rein in the phony reviews, said it would use information discovered in this legal action to 鈥渋dentify bad actors鈥� and remove the fake reviews, agency report said.

Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon鈥檚 Vice-President, Selling Partner Services, said: 鈥淥ur teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they鈥檙e ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media.

鈥淧roactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable.鈥�

According to Amazon, the administrators of these groups solicit fake reviews for hundreds of products sold on Amazon, including car stereos and camera tripods.

The lawsuit identified one such group 鈥� Amazon Product Review 鈥� and said it had more than 43,000 members until it was removed from the Facebook platform earlier this year.

Changing nature of marketing

Lawmakers and regulators have pushed Amazon to take action against phony reviews on its site because of the changing nature of marketing in the modern world.

Experts said that traditional advertising no longer has the power it once did. Instead, consumers often find the experience of other consumers elsewhere to be more persuasive.

Regulators have also contended when there is a paid effort to promote a particular product in the guise of a consumer review, it is highly deceptive and violates any number of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations.

Amazon emphasised that it strictly prohibits fake reviews and employs over 12,000 people around the world to protect its stores from fraud and abuse, including fake reviews.

For example, it says an Amazon team is assigned to investigate fake review schemes on social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

10,000 fake reviews

Since 2020, Amazon said it had reported more than 10,000 fake review groups to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, according to report.

Of these, Amazon said Meta has taken down more than half of the groups for policy violations and continues to investigate others.

Fakespot, an app that identifies fake or unreliable reviews, says it has analysed 3,629 products and 19,321,997 reviews for Amazon products and found that just under 20% are 鈥渦nreliable.鈥�

A recent survey indicated that 2,000 US consumers reported spending an average of $899 per year on disappointing online purchases that failed to live up to reviews, with clothing, tech, and toys providing the most disappointment.

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