Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken tough measures against online review platform Sitejabber, accusing it of violating new regulations and forging product reviews to mislead consumers. The move is one of the first enforcement actions taken by the FTC under newly enacted anti-false comment rules, marking a zero-tolerance attitude of the U.S. government toward false comments online. The rule aims to combat the growing phenomenon of online comments, especially against false comments generated by AI on e-commerce platforms. The Sitejabber case sounded a wake-up call for other platforms and also heralds that supervision of online comments will be stricter in the future.
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took law enforcement actions against online commentary platform Sitejabber, accusing the company of violating new regulations and forging product reviews. According to the FTC’s allegations, Sitejabber has falsely increased the number of comments from merchants by using point-of-sale (POS) questionnaires, thus misleading consumers’ true view of the product.
The FTC notes that Sitejabber’s approach is quite “deceptive”, and the company asks customers to rate and review the shopping experience before they actually experience any product or service. This approach not only distorts customers’ real feedback on the product, but also allows many merchants to display these comments on their websites that are not based on real consumer experience.
The action is one of the first enforcement measures taken by the FTC under the newly issued anti-false comment rules. Under this rule, the FTC prohibits companies from creating or selling fake product reviews, including by providing incentives to encourage user feedback, or establishing fake review websites that are ostensibly independent but are actually owned by product manufacturing companies.
In addition, the FTC asked Sitejabber to immediately stop all relevant deceptive practices, especially forbidding it from continuing to mislead consumers in the presentation of comments, making them believe that the comments are based on real customer experience. Sitejabber can no longer assist other companies in engaging in false advertising when collecting, reviewing or displaying comments.
The introduction of new regulations aims to curb the increasingly serious online comment forgery, especially on e-commerce platforms, and AI-generated comments have also become the focus of regulation. Although the initial results of this FTC's action are significant, regulatory policies may change in the future as the new US president takes office, and FTC's leadership may also face adjustments.
Key points:
The FTC accused Sitejabber of misleading consumers by forging comments and improving merchant reviews.
The new anti-pseudo-comment rule came into effect last month, prohibiting multiple deceptive commentary behaviors.
Future regulatory policies may change as the new president takes office.
The FTC’s penalties on Sitejabber demonstrate their determination to combat false online comments. Although there may be variables in future regulatory policies, this case has sounded a wake-up call for e-commerce platforms and comment websites, and also reminded consumers to be vigilant and look at online comments rationally.