Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Aug 27, 2025

Amazon and Google under UK competition watchdog scrutiny for not ‘doing enough’ to tackle fake review scourge on their platforms

Amazon and Google under UK competition watchdog scrutiny for not ‘doing enough’ to tackle fake review scourge on their platforms

Citing suspicions that Amazon and Google have not adequately addressed their fake review problems, the UK’s competition regulator has launched probes against the tech giants in relation to breaches of consumer protection law.

Announcing the opening of formal investigations on Friday, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said “specific concerns” were raised about whether the two companies were “doing enough” to detect “fake and misleading reviews or suspicious patterns of behaviour.”

An initial sweep, which began in May 2020, cast doubts on whether the firms investigate and remove such reviews, and if they impose “adequate sanctions” to deter reviewers or businesses from violating rules on honest posts – by taking action against repeat offenders in particular.

“Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations,” CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said in an official statement.

“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,” Coscelli added.

If the CMA’s investigation finds Amazon and Google have not sufficiently protected consumers, it can take enforcement action. This could range from “securing formal commitments” to change how they deal with fake reviews to “court action” if necessary.

Misleading and even incentivised consumer reviews have been an e-commerce scourge, with sellers using them to artificially improve their star ratings. This in turn determines how prominently their stores, and products, are displayed on online marketplaces.

The CMA also expressed concerns that Amazon’s detection systems fail to “adequately prevent and deter” some sellers from manipulating product listings – for instance, by “co-opting positive reviews from other products.”

Last September, Amazon had to delete nearly 20,000 product reviews, written by seven of its top UK reviewers, following a Financial Times investigation that discovered the reviewers were being paid to post thousands of five-star ratings.

Ahead of Amazon’s Prime Day sale this month, an investigation by UK consumer protection watchdog Which? found that buyers of some bestselling products were being offered incentives for positive reviews.


In a blog post earlier this month, Amazon attempted to shift the blame to social media companies for not being fast enough to act against the fake reviews it reported, and for not adequately investing in “proactive controls to detect and enforce fake reviews ahead of our reporting the issue to them.”

Noting an increasing trend of “bad actors” soliciting fake reviews – or hiring a third-party to do so on their behalf – outside of Amazon, the company said this “obscure(s) our ability to detect their activity and the relationship between the multiple accounts committing or benefiting from this abuse.”

While the blog did not call any social media platform out by name, it was likely referring to Facebook, which had to sign agreements to “introduce more robust systems to detect and remove such content” last year after being pulled up by the CMA.

However, in April, a follow-up investigation found that little had changed, and Facebook had to remove another 16,000 groups engaging in fake reviews.

Meanwhile, Google’s fake review detection systems have come in for criticism as well. In March, Which? exposed a network of paid-for reviewers providing bogus reviews to several UK businesses’ listings on Google to show how easy and cheap it was to create an artificially inflated customer rating on the search engine’s review system.

Responding to the Which? undercover sting, Google admitted that its automated detection systems allowed “inauthentic reviews” to “slip through from time to time,” despite the tech giant deploying “teams of trained operators and analysts who audit content both individually and in bulk.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
Labour set to freeze income tax thresholds in long-term 'stealth' tax raid
Coca‑Cola explores sale of Costa coffee chain
Trial hears dog walker was chased and fatally stabbed by trio
Restaurateur resigns from government hospitality council over tax criticism
Spanish City funfair shut after serious ride injury
Suspected arson at Ilford restaurant leaves three in critical condition
Tottenham beat Manchester City to go top of Premier League
Bank holiday heatwave to hit 30°C before remnants of Hurricane Erin arrive
UK to deploy immigration advisers to West Africa to block fake visas
Nurse who raped woman continued working for a year despite police alert
Drought forces closures of England’s canal routes, canceling boat holidays
Sweet tooth scents: food-inspired perfumes surge as weight-loss drugs suppress appetites
Experts warn Britain dangerously reliant on imported food
Family of Notting Hill Carnival murder victim call event unmanageable
Bunkers, Billions and Apocalypse: The Secret Compounds of Zuckerberg and the Tech Giants
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
×