US lawmakers put pressure on Amazon to manage fake reviews

In the United States, the back-to-school season is the second most popular shopping season after Christmas.

As students across the country prepare to return to school, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal called on Amazon to increase its crackdown on false or exaggerated reviews.

Blumenthal believes that the reviews here (Amazon) have reached polarization - either too positive or too negative, but both are misleading to consumers and violate the principle of fair competition.

Blumenthal said he hopes people will take notice of the issue as students across the country start buying school supplies. He said high school students will spend $41 billion on back-to-school shopping, while college students will spend even more, nearly $94 billion.

Students who shop online may buy products based on reviews, but those reviews may not be legitimate.

In fact, the problem of fake reviews has always existed. In November last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) told the public that it planned to implement new rules.

According to data reported to the FTC by Public Interest Research Groups in January this year, as many as 40% of online reviews are false or deceptive.

These include positive reviews written by people who received free products or other compensation, and influencers who received commissions for promoting products; as well as people who wrote negative reviews about products without purchasing them, and merchants who deleted negative reviews related to their products.

While fake reviews are a problem across the e-commerce industry, Blumenthal decided to focus on Amazon because of its size and popularity. The National Retail Foundation ranks Amazon as the second-largest retailer in the U.S., behind only Walmart.

Blumenthal believes that Amazon knows these reviews are fake and that it has the ability to combat them and the resources to do so.

In fact, Amazon has never stopped its crackdown on fake reviews. The company said that they blocked more than 200 million suspected fake reviews from appearing on its platform last year. Recently, it also filed a lawsuit against two fake review companies, PMNLWeb and ProAmazonService.

It is worth noting that when Blumenthal made the above remarks, the US Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) was also developing new regulations against fake reviews.

The FTC wants to hold companies that buy and sell online reviews accountable, and in June this year, the agency proposed a fine of $50,000 per violation against such companies. But this penalty does not apply to platforms that provide reviews, such as Amazon and Yelp .

The new rules also plan to prohibit businesses from offering rewards to customers on the condition of leaving positive reviews , but will not prohibit businesses from offering gifts for writing reviews.

It is reported that the FTC will solicit public comments before September 29 and then make a final decision on the proposed terms.

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Back to school season

Fake reviews