The Federal Commerce Fee banned companies from writing and shopping for their very own critiques in an August ruling. Now, it is alleging {that a} buyer evaluation website, Sitejabber, revealed “deceptive” rankings and critiques on behalf of the 130,000 companies on its platform. The FTC’s proposed order would cease Sitejabber from “misrepresenting” buyer rankings and critiques “sooner or later.”
The FTC’s criticism alleges that Sitejabber collected critiques on the level of sale, or earlier than prospects acquired or skilled a services or products. In a single instance, prospects have been requested to charge their total buying expertise out of 5 stars and write one thing shortly straight after trying out.
Associated: Do You Personal Pyrex Measuring Cups? The FTC May Ship You a Examine within the Mail
These fast rankings and critiques, or Immediate Suggestions Survey outcomes, turn out to be a part of a website’s profile on Sitejabber. The FTC says this might mislead folks into pondering prior prospects rated a enterprise’s services or products extremely once they have been really simply ranking the buying expertise.
“Presenting [Instant Feedback Survey] outcomes as post-fulfillment critiques and rankings can mislead shoppers into believing {that a} enterprise’s excessive evaluation rely and excessive ranking means 1000’s of consumers have had optimistic experiences with the enterprise’s services or products, when the truth is the rankings and critiques displayed primarily mirrored solely prospects’ experiences buying on the enterprise’s web sites,” web page 4 of the FTC criticism reads.
The right way to Keep away from FTC Scrunity on Your Web site Critiques
Companies can keep away from FTC scrutiny by ensuring their Immediate Suggestions Survey rankings and critiques are unentangled from their product rankings and critiques — so prospects clearly know what’s being rated.
This is likely one of the FTC’s first enforcement actions beneath its new rule.
“Together with our rule on faux critiques and testimonials, instances like this one present that we’ll act to cease all types of deception within the evaluation ecosystem.” FTC Bureau of Client Safety director Samuel Levine said.
The FTC’s earlier rule on faux critiques and testimonials stops companies from shopping for or promoting faux critiques, together with AI-generated ones.
Associated: Fb, YouTube, WhatsApp All ‘Engaged in Huge Surveillance’ to Earn Billions, In line with the FTC