The Federal Trade Commission continues to put pressure on businesses that make fake reviews

According to foreign media reports, Amazon recently banned some sellers of large Chinese electronic brands with annual sales of hundreds of millions of dollars after the fake order database was leaked . Yesterday, Amazon also issued a "Letter to All Amazon Sellers", in which it mentioned that Amazon will crack down on bad behaviors such as fake orders and abuse of reviews.

According to leaked internal Amazon information, the Federal Trade Commission has continued to pressure Amazon in recent months to take action against merchants that engage in fake reviews .

The FTC said the way Amazon regulates sellers and " paid review programs " is important because fake positive reviews can lead to a flood of low-quality goods on the platform and cause distrust among Amazon shoppers. But more importantly, it puts consumers at risk if people buy low-quality or defective products because of fake positive reviews .

However, these detection systems are not foolproof . For example, the recent revelation of a Chinese seller engaging in fake reviews might have never been detected by Amazon’s backend if the database had not been leaked.

A large number of fake reviews have been exposed, so the Federal Trade Commission 's questioning of Amazon's lack of regulatory capabilities is not groundless. An Amazon employee revealed that among the six Chinese sellers banned from selling , five of them had been warned of "abusing reviews" before, and one had even been warned three times, but for some reason, they were not stopped immediately at the time.

In another internal Amazon employee post , an Amazon employee asked a colleague : Why were two sellers reinstated after violating the "review abuse" rule , while another seller had his appeal rejected ? The colleague responded : The problems caused by Amazon and its marketplace sometimes skirt the line, and now this problem must be faced head-on.

These attempts by Amazon sellers to manipulate reviews are not accidental. Former Amazon employees, sellers and industry consultants said that on the road to building a "universal store", Amazon has neglected to review seller qualifications and build anti-fraud systems for many years, and has focused on enriching platform product categories and actively attracting sellers to join. This unrestricted growth has led to fierce competition in the Amazon seller market, and some unscrupulous merchants have taken risks and violated platform policies in order to survive.

As long as Amazon continues to aim to sell "five-star quality products", the cat-and-mouse game is likely to continue , and some merchants will eventually slip through the net. Even if they are banned for "abusing reviews", they will repeat the same thing on another account, and the cycle will continue. At that time, it is not Amazon that bears the greatest risk , but the hundreds of millions of consumers who think they have purchased high-quality products on Amazon every month .

For the benefit of consumers, the Federal Trade Commission will certainly not stop there. I believe that it will frequently crack down on Amazon in the future, and Amazon will also take serious measures against fake orders, false reviews, etc. Here, I would like to remind all sellers that even if the competition is fierce, they must still strictly abide by the platform rules and create a good market competition atmosphere.

Federal Trade Commission

Amazon

Fake reviews