Centre to develop framework to check fake reviews on e-commerce websites

Department of Consumer Affairs held meeting with stakeholders including Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance and Tata to discuss issues arising due to fake and deceptive online reviews

The Centre will develop a framework to keep a check over fake reviews on e-commerce websites. The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), after studying the present mechanism being followed by the e-commerce entities in India and best practices available globally, will develop the framework.

DoCA in association with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) along with various stakeholders like e-Commerce entities, consumer forums, law universities, lawyers, FICCI, CII, consumer rights activists and others in a meeting discussed the magnitude and roadmap ahead for fake reviews on websites. E-commerce firms like Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance and Tata participated in the meeting, according to sources

Since 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 users who have already purchased the good or service.

“Traceability by ensuring the authenticity of the reviewer and the associated liability of the platform are the two key issues here. Also e-com players must disclose as to how they choose the “most relevant reviews” for display in a fair and transparent manner,” said Secretary DoCA, Rohit Kumar Singh.

All stakeholders agreed that the issue deserves to be monitored closely. They agreed that an appropriate framework governing fake reviews may be developed to address the issue for protection of consumer interest.

Stakeholders from e-commerce companies claimed that they have frameworks in place by which they monitor fake reviews and would be pleased to take part in developing a legal framework on the issue.

Along with Secretary DoCA, Nidhi Khare, additional secretary and Anupam Mishra, joint secretary attended the meeting.

Manisha Kapoor, CEO, ASCI highlighted the categories of fake and misleading reviews and their impact on consumer interest. Paid reviews, unverifiable reviews and absence of disclosure in case of incentivised reviews which make it challenging for consumers to recognize genuine reviews were among the issues discussed.

The meeting comes days after Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh wrote to various e-commerce firms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance and Tata and other trade organisations. The aim of the meeting was to know what companies are doing to address the issue of fake reviews and the kind of regulations that need to be introduced.

Singh, along with his letter to the e-commerce companies, had also shared a statement issued by the European Commission dated January 20, 2022. It highlighted the results of an EU-wide screening of online consumer reviews across 223 major websites.

"The screening results highlight that at least 55 per cent of the websites violate the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive of the EU which requires truthful information to be presented to consumers to make an informed choice,” the statement said.

“Further, in  144 of the 223 websites checked, the authorities could not confirm that traders were doing enough to ensure that the reviews were authentic, i.e if they were posted by consumers who had actually used the product or service that was reviewed.”