The Federal Commerce Fee banned companies from writing and shopping for their very own opinions in an August ruling. Now, it is alleging {that a} buyer evaluate website, Sitejabber, printed “deceptive” rankings and opinions on behalf of the 130,000 companies on its platform. The FTC’s proposed order would cease Sitejabber from “misrepresenting” buyer rankings and opinions “sooner or later.”
The FTC’s grievance alleges that Sitejabber collected opinions on the level of sale, or earlier than clients obtained or skilled a services or products. In a single instance, clients have been requested to price their general purchasing expertise out of 5 stars and write one thing shortly straight after trying out.
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These fast rankings and opinions, or On the spot Suggestions Survey outcomes, change into a part of a website’s profile on Sitejabber. The FTC says this might mislead folks into pondering prior clients rated a enterprise’s services or products extremely once they have been truly simply ranking the purchasing expertise.
“Presenting [Instant Feedback Survey] outcomes as post-fulfillment opinions and rankings can mislead shoppers into believing {that a} enterprise’s excessive evaluate depend and excessive ranking means hundreds of shoppers have had constructive experiences with the enterprise’s services or products, when in truth the rankings and opinions displayed primarily mirrored solely clients’ experiences purchasing on the enterprise’s web sites,” web page 4 of the FTC grievance reads.
The best way to Keep away from FTC Scrunity on Your Web site Evaluations
Companies can keep away from FTC scrutiny by ensuring their On the spot Suggestions Survey rankings and opinions are unentangled from their product rankings and opinions — so clients clearly know what’s being rated.
This is among the FTC’s first enforcement actions below its new rule.
“Together with our rule on pretend opinions and testimonials, instances like this one present that we’ll act to cease all types of deception within the evaluate ecosystem.” FTC Bureau of Client Safety director Samuel Levine said.
The FTC’s earlier rule on pretend opinions and testimonials stops companies from shopping for or promoting pretend opinions, together with AI-generated ones.
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