To normalize reviews on the Internet, regulatory authorities propose rules to impose a fine of up to 7.2 million yen per fake review

Fake reviews are rampant on various online services, including Amazon. To crack down on this, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which monitors fair trade in the United States, has proposed new rules for companies that buy and sell online reviews. If this rule is approved, it will be possible to impose fines of up to $ 50,000 (about 7.24 million yen) every time a consumer sees a single fake review.

16 CFR Part 465: Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials | Federal Trade Commission
https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/federal-register-notices/16-cfr-part-465-trade-regulation-rule-use-consumer-reviews-testimonials

Fake reviews are illegal and subject to big fines under new FTC rules - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/30/fake-reviews-online-ftc/

Various sites on the Internet such as Amazon, Google, and Tripadvisor implement reviews that allow users to judge the quality of content from multiple perspectives. However, not only honest reviews by users are posted. In recent years, 'fake reviews' that post reviews have been viewed as a problem.

Researchers at the consumer protection organization PIRG estimate that about 30-40% of reviews on the Internet are fake reviews that have been fabricated, and on Amazon, 42% of all reviews are fake reviews. There is also a survey result.

Report that `` Amazon's fake reviews '' reached 42% of the total due to corona wreck-GIGAZINE

In addition, the existence of organizations that buy and sell such fake reviews has become clear, and Amazon has taken measures in the past to collectively delete reviews related to fake review sales organizations.

After the existence of an organization that posts fake reviews on Amazon becomes clear, popular Apple accessories disappear from Amazon - GIGAZINE

In addition, with the advent of high-performance chat AI such as ChatGPT, there are concerns that fake reviews may increase further in the future.

Spam generated by ChatGPT on Amazon reviews and Twitter is exploding, and experts are concerned about the increase in 'AI spam' - GIGAZINE

To date, the federal government has dealt only with individual cases in litigation against such fake reviews, and does not have a comprehensive system to deal with the entirety of fake reviews. However, on June 30, 2023 local time, the FTC is proposing new rules to curb fake reviews.

This rule does not put the responsibility directly on the website implementing the review function, but to crack down on companies that buy and sell fake reviews. The Washington Post reported on the rule as ``the biggest step ever taken by the federal government to crack down on the insidious market that buys and sells fake reviews.''

'Anyone who has ever shopped online wants to check objective reviews about products,' said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Office of Consumer Protection. There is a lot of deceptive information such as reviews, so it's confusing, ''he said, stating the need for the FTC's proposed fake review prohibition rule.

The FTC has stated that fake reviews 'are always against the law because they mislead consumers.' The rule, which has a two-month comment period before it is codified, will clarify who will be held accountable so the FTC can take more action. It's for

This rule seems to prohibit reviews that misrepresent the product experience and reviews written by non-existent people. It also prohibits 'reviews without explicit disclosure' by parties such as company employees. In addition, this rule will impose penalties not only on those who wrote fake reviews, but also on intermediaries that buy and sell fake reviews, and companies that paid money knowing that they were fake reviews.

As mentioned at the beginning, a fine of up to $ 50,120 (about 7.26 million yen) will be imposed for each fake review, but political advertisements are not covered.

In addition, the FTC also prohibits the act of falsifying reviews by replacing the product to be sold with another product (product B) after gathering reviews on product A.

It is pointed out that ``scams selling fake SSDs leaving only reviews on highly rated product pages'' are rampant on Amazon-GIGAZINE

However, the FTC states that it is 'allowed' for companies to ask customers to review them, and it does not specifically prohibit companies from giving gift cards etc. as rewards for writing reviews to customers.

Businesses are also prohibited from using intimidation or legal intimidation to suppress negative reviews, or from hosting independent review features on their own sites that sell their products or services. .

While the FTC claims that codifying the rules will make fraudulent review-related litigation much more efficient, for companies based in countries that work with the FTC, holding them accountable He also said, 'There is still a possibility that the hurdles are high.'

However, consumer protection groups said that in order to fundamentally solve the fake review problem, ``the whole fake review economy needs to be addressed.'' Specifically, SNS such as Facebook and Twitter are convenient platforms for recruiting fake review writers, and they point out the need to crack down on them.

And although this rule does not take responsibility for the site that publishes the review, it is the site that publishes the review that ultimately manages which reviews to publish. A consumer protection group pointed out that 'the site needs to confirm the identity of the user who posted the review and whether the reviewed content was really used.'

Regarding the reason why the FTC does not pursue the responsibility of the website that publishes the review under this rule, Mr. Levine said, ``There are too many sites claiming exemption based on Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act. '' I said.

In addition, the website that implements the review is also seriously promoting efforts to eradicate fake reviews. In 2022, Amazon claims to have blocked more than 200 million fake reviews, and Yelp also removed it in 2022 because software for detecting fake reviews determined that 19% of all reviews were fake reviews. said he did.