‘Fake reviews’ on e-commerce platforms under govt scanner

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, May 26

“Fake reviews” on e-commerce platforms are under the Centre’s radar. The Department of Consumer Affairs has called a meeting with leading e-commerce companies and stakeholders to discuss the magnitude of fake reviews on e-commerce platforms, which mislead consumers into buying online services or products.

“Discussions will be broadly based on the impact of fake and misleading reviews on consumers and possible measures to prevent such anomaly”, officials said

DoCA Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh has written to stakeholders, including e-commerce companies like  Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Sons, Reliance Retail, consumer forums, law universities, lawyers, FICCI, CII and consumer rights activists, they said.

Singh said since e-commerce involves a virtual shopping experience without any opportunity to physically view or examine a product, consumers have to rely on reviews posted on e-commerce platforms to see the opinion and experience of user who have already purchased the goods or service.  “As a result, due to fake and misleading reviews, the right to be informed, which is a consumer right under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is violated,” he said

Since the issue impacts people shopping online on a daily basis and has a significant impact on their rights as a consumer, it is important that it is examined with greater scrutiny and detail, he added

Singh also shared a press release of the European Commission dated January 20, 2022, highlighting results screening on online consumer reviews across 223 major websites which underlines that at least 55 per cent violate the unfair commercial practices directive which requires truthful information to be presented to consumers to make an informed choice.

In 144 out of the 223 websites checked, the authorities could not confirm that traders were doing enough to ensure that reviews were authentic, that is if they were posted by consumers who had actually used the product or service that was reviewed, he said.