By Ahmad Hathout
For nearly three years, the Competition Bureau has been investigating whether Amazon is allowing on its website fake product reviews that are influencing the purchasing decisions of Canadians, according to a June 5 filing in the Federal Court.
The confidential investigation was revealed, as it often is, through a request by the bureau to compel the subject of the investigation through a court order to divulge more information to advance the inquiry.
Through the investigation so far, the bureau said it has discovered that there are markets on social media where people are paid to leave positive reviews without disclosing such; that Amazon provides trusted markers, such as star ratings and verified purchase badges, on fake reviews; and that, ultimately, these contribute to how high the products rank on the platform’s default search results.
“The Commissioner is investigating, among other things, whether Amazon has a business interest in gaining extra revenue from boosts in sales flowing from allowing fake reviews, which enhance consumer perception of products offered for sale on the Amazon Platform, and weighing those benefits against the harm to it that results from consumers purchasing products affected by fake reviews.”
The bureau said it is seeking to answer the following questions: which persons or companies are making or permitting these trusted markers on fake reviews; whether these markers are false or misleading in a material respect; whether the markers, or the general impression of them, influence the behaviour of the website’s users; whether they are used to promote the supply or use of the product; and what factors go into how the products are ranked in search.
Representatives from the company and the bureau met via videoconference on May 15 to discuss the draft order to the court, with each making their own changes to the scope of the request, according to the draft order itself.
The bureau is warning that Amazon’s alleged preference to limit the inquiry to “incentivized reviews,” which include fake product reviews, will allow the e-commerce giant to determine the scope of what’s relevant to the investigation because “incentivized reviews” is a company term. In other words, it would allow the company to turn a “blind-eye to fake reviews when it is in Amazon’s business interest to do so,” the bureau said.
In a statement to Cartt, an Amazon spokesperson said: “We continue collaborating with the Bureau to share more about Amazon’s longstanding commitment to fighting fake or improperly incentivized reviews, both in Canada and globally. Amazon has invested significant resources to proactively stop incentivized reviews using machine-learning models, expert investigators, and legal action, among other tools. Understanding that fake reviews are a global issue affecting different industries, Amazon has long welcomed greater collaboration across the private and public sector to protect customers from bad actors.”
The bureau opened the inquiry on November 9, 2021, three years after Amazon announced that it was prohibiting those “incentivized reviews.”
A year prior, the bureau opened an investigation into whether Videotron employees were engaging in deceptive marketing practices by posting positive reviews of the company’s own products.
