Part of shopping these days involves combing through numerous online reviews about products and services.
It’s getting harder to tell if those reviews are genuine, and that’s why the Federal Trade Commission is making moves to crack down on bogus reviews and testimonials.
Getting duped by a review can cost you money, steering you toward a product or company that may not be right for you. In some cases, they could be outright scams.
The FTC announced new rules to fight this problem. First, the rule prohibits reviews written by someone who doesn’t exist. That includes reviews generated via AI and those from someone who doesn’t actually have experience with the product or service in question.
The rule also bans companies from paying for positive reviews and limits their ability to suppress negative ones.
Company insiders won’t be allowed to post online reviews without clearly disclosing their connection to the company or product.
There are also new limits on so-called “independent reviews” posted on websites that a company controls.
Until now, previous court cases have limited the FTC’s ability to penalize companies for such practices, but the agency will be able to impose fines for individual violations.
And if a company has hundreds of thousands of online reviews, those fines could add up quickly.
“By strengthening the FTC’s toolkit to fight deceptive advertising, the final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement.
The rules are set to take effect in less than 60 days, meaning they should be in place by mid-October.
Comments are closed.