This year in August, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a ban on writing, buying, and selling fake reviews online.
FTC also had a provision of hefty fines for those who participate in a fake review. Now, the commissioners at FTC have voted on this agreement and it has been passed. The new ruling by the FTC on writing a fake review online is in effect now.
This new agreement will be for AI-generated reviews and dishonest celebrity endorsements. It will also include the testimonials posted by a company’s employees, relatives, or friends. If so, they need to include an explicit disclaimer in those reviews. The new ruling also prohibits brands from offering any sort of incentive for reviews.
According to this, suppressing negative reviews is not allowed. Also, promoting reviews that the company knows or should know are fake is not allowed.
According to the FTC, these types of fake reviews could mislead consumers about the product and create unfair competition. Here is what FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement.
“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.”
Finally, there is some respite for the consumers as the problem of fake reviews is taken seriously. Even Google updated its review restriction document last month by imposing new restrictions for policy violations.
From now on, if a Maps business profile is caught with fake reviews, it will be unable to receive new reviews for a given period. In addition, the existing reviews or ratings will not be published for a specific period. Then there is going to be a warning message on your page for users informing them that non-compliant reviews have been removed.
