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 overview website, Sitejabber, revealed “deceptive” scores and opinions on behalf of the 130,000 companies on its platform. The FTC’s proposed order would cease Sitejabber from “misrepresenting” buyer scores and opinions “sooner or later.”
The FTC’s grievance alleges that Sitejabber collected opinions 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 fee their general buying expertise out of 5 stars and write one thing rapidly instantly after testing.
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These fast scores and opinions, or On the spot 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 truly simply ranking the buying expertise.
“Presenting [Instant Feedback Survey] outcomes as post-fulfillment opinions and scores can mislead shoppers into believing {that a} enterprise’s excessive overview depend and excessive ranking means 1000’s of consumers have had constructive experiences with the enterprise’s services or products, when in truth the scores and opinions displayed primarily mirrored solely prospects’ experiences buying on the enterprise’s web sites,” web page 4 of the FTC grievance reads.
How one can 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 scores and opinions are unentangled from their product scores and opinions — so prospects clearly know what’s being rated.
This is among the FTC’s first enforcement actions underneath its new rule.
“Together with our rule on faux opinions and testimonials, instances like this one present that we’ll act to cease all types of deception within the overview ecosystem.” FTC Bureau of Client Safety director Samuel Levine said.
The FTC’s earlier rule on faux opinions and testimonials stops companies from shopping for or promoting faux opinions, together with AI-generated ones.
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