Check manipulation of online reviews
The increasing dependence of consumers on online reviews of products and services makes it imperative that these reviews be honest and genuine. However, the very fact that they influence consumer choice tempts manufacturers and service providers to manipulate the reviews to their advantage. Executed through paid reviews, often managed by specialised ‘online reputation management’ companies, such fake and fraudulent high-star ratings and reviews distort consumer choice and harm consumer interest.
Another deceptive practice is to block or reject genuine consumer reviews that are negative or critical of the product or service. This suppression of honest opinions that go against a product or a service, once again undermines the very raison d’etre of online reviews and misleads consumers on the quality, be it a product or a service.
Last month, I got two interesting feedbacks about online reviews — one of these pertained to the purchase of an apparel on the basis of the five-star ratings that it had received on the website. However, on delivery, the consumer found the quality to be poor. She soon got the answer to the ‘five-star’ ratings that the garment had garnered — inside the package was an offer of payment of Rs 200 for a five-star rating! She brought this to the notice of the online marketplace, but there was no response!
In another case, the consumer found the quality of the shirt to be very different from the description on the website — it was obviously a case of misrepresentation, and so the consumer gave the garment a poor rating and wrote a review pointing out the falsities. The website did not publish it!
Not publishing critical reviews or poor ratings is as bad as paid positive reviews, and I must mention here that the Federal Trade Commission in the United States took a very serious view of an online fashion retailer, Fashion Nova, blocking hundreds of thousands of negative consumer reviews about its products for several years and imposed, in 2022, a penalty of $4.2 million for the harm incurred by the consumers. Last year, it used this money to pay refunds to consumers who bought goods on the basis of the one-sided reviews and were unhappy with the product.
With the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the consumer protection regulator — the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) — taking a very serious view of such devious manipulations and manufactured reviews, one hopes to see similar regulatory action here in India too. In 2022, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs introduced, on a voluntary basis, the Indian Standard (IS) 19000:2022 on online consumer reviews, aimed at ensuring the integrity and accountability in the publication of reviews and eliminating fake, fraudulent and biased opinions.
The standard prohibits publication of reviews that have been purchased or written by individuals employed for that purpose by the supplier or seller or by a third party, and requires stringent processes such as filtering and control tools and algorithms to be put in place by all online sites that publish consumer reviews. Unfortunately, the voluntary standard did not have the desired result, and so the ministry has now decided to make the standard mandatory through a quality control order and initiated the process.
Once the quality control order comes into force, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will be the enforcing agency but the CCPA can also take action against violations, including refusal to publish negative news.
Interestingly, in a nationwide study by Local Circles, a community social media platform, involving 54,000 users of e-commerce sites and apps, 22 per cent of the respondents said their reviews were not published because these were negative. About 60 per cent of the respondents found reviews to be positively biased, while 56 per cent felt that way about ratings.
Unlike advertisements issued by businesses, online reviews are opinions of other consumers who have used the services or products, and are, therefore, of immense help to consumers in making an informed choice — it is, therefore, absolutely essential that the sanctity of such reviews is strictly maintained. In fact, it is in the interest of businesses to ensure that reviews are honest and true so that consumers can depend on them and they continue to patronise online retail stores and review platforms. Towards this end, all such online sites should explain the processes employed by them to ensure the reliability of the reviews, including statistical data on the number of reviews received, published, rejected and the reasons for it.
Meanwhile, I would urge more and more consumers to give their feedback on services and goods that they hire or purchase so as to help fellow consumers. If negative comments are not published, they must lodge a complaint with the BIS or the Consumer Affairs Ministry through the national consumer helpline.
