FTC has fined an organization for hijacking reviews on Amazon for the first time. The Bountiful Company has been ordered to pay $600,000 for deceiving customers online by using a feature to merge the reviews of different products to have better ratings and reviews.
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SAN FRANCISCO - APRIL 06: Don Olufs checks inventory of vitamins and diet supplements at Vibrant Health April 6, 2009 in San Francisco, California. As the economy continues to falter, many Americans are buying vitamins and health supplements in an attempt to stay healthy and avoid paying high medical bills.
Fining The Bountiful Company
A final consent order was approved by the United States Federal Trade Commission, its first enforcement action ever regarding a case involving "review hjiacking." According to Engadget's report, The Bountiful Company abused Amazon's feature to deceive customers by making it seems like some of its newer supplements had higher product reviews and ratings.
The organization allegedly used the feature to give newer products a boost from existing offerings with different formulations. Because of this, FTC voted unanimously approved a consent order that will make Bountiful pay $600,000. Additionally, the company is barred from employing these tactics in the future.
"Boosting your products by hijacking another product's ratings or reviews is a relatively new tactic, but is still plain old false advertising," FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine stated.
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These included the reviews for Nature's Bounty Stress Comfort Mood Booster and Nature's Bounty Stress Comfort Peace of Mind Stress Relief Gummies, merging with Nature's Bounty Anxiety & Stress Relief Ashwagandha KSM-66 tablets, Nature's Bounty Botanical Sleep tablets, and Nature's Bounty Valerian Root capsules.
TechCrunch reported that before merging the reviews, Stress Comfort only had 26 reviews and 3.2 stars. In August 2020, an internal email revealed that Bountiful stated that the newer products' approximately 1,000 ratings and 4.5 average ratings came from the older products and their variation relationship.
Amazon's Response
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon supports the agency's decision as the company believes there's no place for fraud in their online retail store. As per a spokesperson from the company, Amazon has proactive measures indicated on their store that will prevent companies from abusing the listing.
More than 99% of the products people view on its store contain only authentic reviews, the company stated. Amazon recommends to its consumers that if they find a suspicious review that looks fake, tapping the "Report" button will help the company to investigate and take action.
With this, the company aims to continuously monitor their store with their review policies. Amazon will suspend, ban, and take legal action against those companies that will violate these policies.
Amazon has been fighting this problem in several ways, including filing lawsuits and permanently banning brands for review fraud. The company, FTC, and other enforcement agencies will continue to work to fight fraudsters and their "review hijacking."
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