The Federal Commerce Fee banned companies from writing and shopping for their very own evaluations in an August ruling. Now, it is alleging {that a} buyer assessment web site, Sitejabber, revealed “deceptive” scores and evaluations on behalf of the 130,000 companies on its platform. The FTC’s proposed order would cease Sitejabber from “misrepresenting” buyer scores and evaluations “sooner or later.”
The FTC’s grievance alleges that Sitejabber collected evaluations on the level of sale, or earlier than prospects obtained or skilled a services or products. In a single instance, prospects had been requested to fee their total buying expertise out of 5 stars and write one thing rapidly instantly after testing.
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These fast scores and evaluations, or On the spot Suggestions Survey outcomes, turn into a part of a web site’s profile on Sitejabber. The FTC says this might mislead individuals into considering prior prospects rated a enterprise’s services or products extremely after they had been really simply ranking the buying expertise.
“Presenting [Instant Feedback Survey] outcomes as post-fulfillment evaluations and scores can mislead customers into believing {that a} enterprise’s excessive assessment rely and excessive ranking means hundreds of shoppers have had constructive experiences with the enterprise’s services or products, when actually the scores and evaluations displayed primarily mirrored solely prospects’ experiences buying on the enterprise’s web sites,” web page 4 of the FTC grievance reads.
How you can Keep away from FTC Scrunity on Your Web site Critiques
Companies can keep away from FTC scrutiny by ensuring their On the spot Suggestions Survey scores and evaluations are unentangled from their product scores and evaluations — so prospects clearly know what’s being rated.
This is among the FTC’s first enforcement actions beneath its new rule.
“Together with our rule on faux evaluations and testimonials, circumstances like this one present that we’ll act to cease all types of deception within the assessment ecosystem.” FTC Bureau of Shopper Safety director Samuel Levine acknowledged.
The FTC’s earlier rule on faux evaluations and testimonials stops companies from shopping for or promoting faux evaluations, together with AI-generated ones.
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