UK secures action from Amazon to tackle fake reviews

Amazon has committed to do more to tackle fake reviews, including sanctioning British businesses that boost their ratings through bogus posts, the country's competition watchdog said on Friday.

Following a four-year probe, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Amazon's undertakings also addressed its concerns about 'catalogue abuse' where sellers use the reviews of well-performing unrelated products to boost ratings and mislead customers.

Companies that break the rules could be banned from selling on the e-commerce giant's platform altogether, while users who post fake reviews could be banned from posting reviews.

Amazon also committed to robust processes to quickly detect and remove fake reviews and catalogue abuse, the CMA said.

The regulator, which estimates that 90% of consumers use online reviews to inform purchases, began investigating Amazon and Google in 2021 over possible breaches of consumer protection law. It secured similar commitments from Google in January.

"These new commitments matter and help set the standard," CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement.

The watchdog is conducting an initial sweep of review platforms following the release of new reviews guidance in April, seeking to identify platforms that may need to do more to comply with consumer law.

Under its newly-granted powers, the CMA can independently decide whether consumer law has been infringed and take action in case of breaches, including issuing fines and ordering businesses to improve their practices.