Fake reviews on e-commerce platforms under government scanner

The Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a meeting with e-commerce entities and stakeholders to discuss the magnitude of fake reviews and prepare a roadmap ahead.

The department, in association with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), will hold a virtual meeting on May 27.

The Consumer Affairs Ministry in a statement said that the meeting would be held to gauge the magnitude of fake reviews on e-commerce platforms that mislead consumers into buying products or services online.

"The discussions will be broadly based on the impact of fake and misleading reviews on consumers and possible measures to prevent such anomaly," the Ministry said.

The Secretary of the department Rohit Kumar Singh wrote to all stakeholders — e-commerce entities, including Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Sons, Reliance Retail, among others, besides,  Consumer forums, law universities, lawyers, FICCI, CII, consumer rights activists will also be present at the meeting, to participate in the meeting, the statement said.

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With the letter, Singh also shared the European Commission's January 20, 2022 press release, which highlights the results of an EU-wide screening of consumer reviews across 223 websites. The screening results underlined that at least 55 percent of the websites violated the EU's unfair commercial practices directive, which requires correct information to be presented to consumers, who can then make an informed decision.

Also, out of the 223 websites checked, in 144 of them the authorities could not confirm if the traders were doing enough to ensure that the reviews were authentic enough.

Singh said that it is relevant to mention that with growing Internet and smartphone-use, consumers are increasingly shopping online to purchase goods and services. "Given that e-commerce involves a virtual shopping experience without any opportunity to physically view or examine the product, consumers heavily 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," Singh's letter added.

As the issue impacts people shopping online daily and has a significant impact on their consumer rights, it is important that it is examined with greater scrutiny and detail, the letter stated.