Fake reviews on e-Commerce platforms under Govt's radar

New Delhi [India], May 26 : The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Thursday said on Thursday it is keeping a close watch on fake reviews on e-Commerce platforms as it infringes on the rights of consumers.
To gauge the magnitude of fake reviews on e-Commerce platforms that mislead consumers into buying online services or products and to prepare a roadmap ahead, the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) in association with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) will be holding a virtual meeting on 27th May 2022 along with various stakeholders, the ministry said.
The discussions will be broadly based on the impact of fake and misleading reviews on consumers and possible measures to prevent such anomalies. In this regard, Secretary DoCA, Rohit Kumar Singh has written to all stakeholders: e-Commerce entities like Flipkart, Amazon, Tata Sons, Reliance Retail, and others besides, Consumer Forums, Law Universities, Lawyers, FICCI, CII, Consumer Rights Activists, etc to participate in the meeting.
In the letter, Singh referred to a report of the European Commission, highlighting the results of an EU-wide screening of online consumer reviews across 223 major websites.
The screening results underline 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. Further, in 144 out of the 223 websites checked, the authorities could not confirm that traders were doing enough to ensure that reviews were authentic, i.e., if they were posted by consumers who had actually used the product or service that was reviewed.
"It is relevant to mention that with growing internet and smartphone use, consumers are increasingly shopping online to purchase goods and services. Given that 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 experiences of users who have already purchased the goods or service. As a result, due to fake and misleading reviews, the right to be informed, which is a consumer right under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 is violated," Sing noted in the letter.
"Since the issue impacts people shopping online on a daily basis and has a significant impact on their rights as a consumer, it is important that it is examined with greater scrutiny and detail," the letter states.