I admit that when I am looking online for restaurants, consumer products, and places to stay, I generally look at reviews and they influence my decision. However, there have been numerous reports that reviews are often fake and unreliable. That has become so pervasive that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule in August banning fake reviews and providing authority to assess civil fines and penalties against companies that post fake reviews.

This week, the FTC made good on its promise to combat fake reviews by issuing a proposed Order against GGL Projects, Inc., which does business as Sitejabber, alleging that “it collected ratings and reviews for its online business clients from consumers at the time of purchase, before they received or had the chance to experience the products or services they bought.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, consumers were asked to rate their “overall shopping experience so far” and add a message about the shopping experience at the time of purchase, but not after use of the product.

The FTC alleges that Sitejabber “used these point-of-sale ratings and reviews to deceptively inflate the average ratings and review counts of its clients on the company’s review platform, claiming that the ratings ‘indicat[e] that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases.’” The inflated ratings and counts were then displayed in Google and other search results. It was deemed deceptive because the rating was really about the experience purchasing the product, not a review of the product itself.

The proposed order “prohibits the company from misrepresenting, or assisting anyone else in misrepresenting, that the average customer rating, number of ratings or reviews, or any rating or review of a product, service, or business reflects the views of customers who actually received the product or service purchased or had an opportunity to experience the product or service. It also bars Sitejabber from making or assisting anyone else in making any misrepresentation about any ratings, average ratings, or reviews it collects, moderates, or displays.”

It’s great that the FTC is helping combat fake reviews and misrepresentations, but how do we figure out if a review is real or fake? Here are some helpful tips from the Better Business Bureau:

https://www.bbb.org/all/spot-a-scam/how-to-spot-a-fake-review

Photo of Linn Foster Freedman Linn Foster Freedman

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, cybersecurity, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and the Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team, and chairs the firm’s Data Privacy and Security and Artificial Intelligence Teams. Linn focuses her…

Linn Freedman practices in data privacy and security law, cybersecurity, and complex litigation. She is a member of the Business Litigation Group and the Financial Services Cyber-Compliance Team, and chairs the firm’s Data Privacy and Security and Artificial Intelligence Teams. Linn focuses her practice on compliance with all state and federal privacy and security laws and regulations. She counsels a range of public and private clients from industries such as construction, education, health care, insurance, manufacturing, real estate, utilities and critical infrastructure, marine and charitable organizations, on state and federal data privacy and security investigations, as well as emergency data breach response and mitigation. Linn is an Adjunct Professor of the Practice of Cybersecurity at Brown University and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law.  Prior to joining the firm, Linn served as assistant attorney general and deputy chief of the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Rhode Island. She earned her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law and her B.A., with honors, in American Studies from Newcomb College of Tulane University. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Read her full rc.com bio here.