Amazon, Tripadvisor, and other companies team up to battle fake reviews while FTC seeks to ban them

Some of the most used platforms for travel and online shopping said on October 12 that they’re going to team up to battle fake reviews. Amazon, review sites Glassdoor and Trustpilot, as well as travel companies Expedia Group, Booking.com, and Tripadvisor said in an announcement that they’re launching a coalition that aims to protect access to “trustworthy consumer reviews" worldwide. The companies said the members of the group, which will be called Coalition for Trusted Reviews, will look for best practices for hosting online reviews and share methods on how to detect fake ones. That will include developing standards for what constitutes a fake review and sharing information about how bad actors operate. Phony reviews have long plagued online marketplaces despite their efforts to eradicate them. Much of the problem is fueled by brokers who solicit fake customer reviews through social media platforms, encrypted messaging apps, and other channels in exchange for money, free items, or other benefits. Brokers can solicit positive reviews to boost sales for businesses or sellers. They can also post negative reviews for competitors in order to tank their sales. In September, Amazon said two review brokers in China were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and three years of probation after using messaging apps to advertise and sell fake reviews to Amazon selling accounts. The company has filed a flurry of other lawsuits in the past year against operators that it says were doing similar things. Last year, it also sued the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups that it alleged were coordinating bogus reviews in exchange for money or free products. Facebook groups trading reviews for Google and Trustpilot, which allows users to leave feedback for businesses, were also discovered earlier this year by the British consumer watchdog group “Which?” Federal regulators have also been aiming to crack down on bogus reviews aiming to deceive consumers. In June, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule that, among other things, would prohibit businesses from selling or obtaining fake reviews, suppressing honest reviews, and selling fake social media engagement. This article was provided by The Associated Press.