The Federal Competition Bureau warns e-commerce companies against posting reviews and comments by their employees without disclosing their ties to the company in question.
“Online reviews are often at the heart of consumers’ purchasing decisions. And these buyers often take for granted that the reviews come from real, unbiased customers like themselves,” said Matthew Boswell, Competition Commissioner, in a press release.
“But when employees post such reviews online without revealing their ties to the company in question, consumers are misled. In these cases, businesses can be held liable, and we will not hesitate to take strong action to crack down on problematic reviews,” Boswell warns.
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell
In fact, underlines the Competition Bureau, “when posting online reviews about their employer or its competitors, employees must disclose all ties that unite them to the company in question, the product or the service which they promote.
Why this obligation?
“These business or employer connections have the potential to influence how consumers assess the independence of the person writing the review,” explains the Competition Bureau in its warning to companies that conduct of online commerce.
Reviews must be transparent and truthful to allow consumers to make informed purchasing choices. This obligation applies to all types of reviews or ratings, including testimonials posted on social media.
Extract from the Competition Bureau press release
In fact, the Competition Bureau is reminded, “any person or company that writes or authorizes the writing of reviews that give a false or misleading impression to consumers may be held responsible under the Competition law “.
Misstep
In this context, what advice does online merchants have to avoid such marketing faux pas among their employees?
In its warning, the Competition Bureau makes two main recommendations.
First, he suggests that they “train their employees to properly disclose their business relationships when posting reviews about the company or its competitors.”
And when such disclosure is impossible in the media used, “these employees should refrain from publishing their opinions about the company or business with which they are associated.”
Next, the Competition Bureau recommends that companies that engage in online commerce “put in place a compliance program to prevent their employees from publishing misleading or misidentified reviews.”
He also advises them to implement an “effective control system” to detect and correct such errors in the publication of poorly identified notices.
And the consumers?
As for online consumers who want to avoid the trap of misleading marketing notices, the Competition Bureau recalls that it had already published a detailed warning to this effect in 2022, along with some prevention tips.
Among other things, it calls on online consumers to be wary of “publishing false reviews” which can result from an “organized effort on the part of a company [de commerce en ligne] to improve its own ranking or to lower that of its competitors.
Thus, warns the Competition Bureau, “companies can encourage their employees to publish favorable reviews”, or even “encourage customers to leave positive reviews”.
Additionally, e-commerce businesses “may even hire another company to post fake reviews” to artificially boost their reputation or star rating among consumers and potential customers.
How can you protect yourself from this, in the opinion of the Competition Bureau?
Among his advice, The Press retained the following:
• Pay attention to a sudden increase in positive reviews or a sudden drop in negative reviews. And be wary of very positive and even laudatory comments about a product or service promoted online.
• Be wary of reviews posted online over a short period of time by so-called reviewers whose user profile is still recent. These so-called reviewers may work for the company and be compensated (in money, goods, or services) for posting false positive reviews.
• When a good or service promoted online gets only perfect reviews, “that’s a red flag,” warns the Competition Bureau. “All businesses, no matter how good they are, are likely to have some negative reviews. »
To thwart this “fake of the stars” and better understand the truth about a good or service promoted online, “also read the two, three or four star evaluations,” advises the Competition Bureau.
“Someone who writes a fake review is more likely to give an extreme one- or five-star rating, which means you’re more likely to find a balanced review in middle-of-the-road reviews. »