Bunch of people report Amazon as being rife with fake reviews. FTC puts together some sort of working group that does some research to figure out if it's true. If it's true, they reach out to Amazon telling them to fix it after handing them a fine. After a while, they verify that Amazon implemented sufficient safe-guards against fake reviews.
Sure, it wouldn't get rid of all fake reviews, but surely it'd be better than the current approach of doing absolutely nothing, no?
How can you enforce people giving fake reviews for things they bought? Bring the review police? How can you prove they're given free products to review them positively? Don't get me wrong, I wish online reviews weren't utterly broken but it seems like business wants it this way. I certainly hope this will get fixed and not jump to the next loophole.
Of course they want it. It's purely objective for them and purely deceptive to the consumer. Therefore, it's the perfect thing for the FTC to regulate - I mean this is what their purpose is.
Enforcement will be difficult, but I really think platforms like Amazon isn't the problem. They're a unified platform, it's pretty easy for them to enforce better review. Maybe you need to have actually bought the product, maybe they monitor product descriptions for asking for reviews, maybe they audit packages for those little "review us 5 stars!" slips, maybe they prevent modifying products, etc.
The true tough thing to enforce is little shops. You know, convenience stores, smoke shops, that type. I've been told, verbally, many times that if I review 5 stars, I get some discount. I doubt the FTC will send physical agents to check that.
It's hard to bug-squash website by website for sure. They scatter like cockroaches in the light.
But, I think most online buying in the US goes through Amazon and maybe a couple other online retailers. Fix it there and you fixed the problem for 90% of cases.
It isn't hard - you can't get everyone, but find a few influences who you "know" are doing this. Then make them aware they are being investigated - even if you don't have enough evidence to convict that they are aware they could be in trouble will make them stop. Or better yet, tell them you are gathering evidence, but if they cooperate with the investigation you will let them off - then they give you a copy of all the illegal communication trying to buy their good reviews: go after the corporations buying illegal reviews.
Remember you don't need to get everyone doing this. Even a few cases that your get on the nightly news will be enough to stop a large majority of fraud. You just need to get enough that everyone else decides not to do this.
Bunch of people report Amazon as being rife with fake reviews. FTC puts together some sort of working group that does some research to figure out if it's true. If it's true, they reach out to Amazon telling them to fix it after handing them a fine. After a while, they verify that Amazon implemented sufficient safe-guards against fake reviews.
Sure, it wouldn't get rid of all fake reviews, but surely it'd be better than the current approach of doing absolutely nothing, no?