Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 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
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
Energy Infrastructure Becomes War Zone in Middle East
×