The U.K. government has started an investigation into whether Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google violated the country’s consumer protection laws by failing to prohibit or remove fake reviews.
What Happened: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began an initial investigation into the tech giants last month to determine how their platforms’ internal systems and processes identified and mitigated fake reviews.
The CMA also raised its concern over the ability of Amazon’s systems to prevent and deter the manipulation of product listings by sellers who co-opt positive reviews from other products.
“Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations,” said CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli. “Equally, it’s simply not fair if some businesses can fake five-star reviews to give their products or services the most prominence, while law-abiding businesses lose out.
“We are investigating concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to prevent or remove fake reviews to protect customers and honest businesses,” Coscelli added. “It’s important that these tech platforms take responsibility and we stand ready to take action if we find that they are not doing enough.”
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What Happens Next: The CMA stressed that it was premature to determine if Amazon and Google broke U.K. law, adding that any potential enforcement actions could include “securing formal commitments from the firms to change the way they deal with fake reviews or escalating to court action if needed.”
The new probe is the latest action by the CMA against U.S.-headquartered tech companies regarding fake reviews.
Last year, the agency’s enforcement action against eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) resulted in the companies removing groups and banning individuals from their platforms for buying and selling fake reviews.
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