Amazon has committed to strengthening its efforts against fake reviews, according to Britain’s competition regulator following an investigation into whether major online platforms are doing enough to combat false product and service ratings.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that Amazon agreed to new measures after the watchdog secured similar commitments from Google earlier this year to address deceptive reviews spreading online.
Amazon plans to improve its existing systems to detect and prevent fake reviews and will also target “catalog abuse.” This practice involves sellers artificially inflating star ratings by hijacking positive reviews from unrelated products. For example, a shopper might see a five-star rating on a pair of headphones, but most of the reviews actually pertain to a mobile phone charger.
As part of the agreement, Amazon will penalize sellers caught using such tactics, potentially banning them from its platform. Users who post fake reviews could also face bans from submitting further reviews.
Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, highlighted the importance of trustworthy ratings for millions of Amazon shoppers, saying that these new measures will help customers make informed choices, knowing that dishonest actors will be dealt with swiftly.
The commitments apply specifically to Amazon’s UK website. Amazon emphasized its zero-tolerance stance on fake reviews, noting that the new steps will enhance its ongoing efforts. The company invests heavily in preventing fake reviews through expert human investigators and machine learning models analyzing thousands of data points to identify risks.
The CMA began investigating Amazon and Google in 2021 amid the surge in online shopping during the pandemic, focusing on whether the companies violated UK consumer laws by failing to protect buyers from misleading reviews.
