As you know, reviews hold a huge place in both written and video content production: users often look to reviews and opinions to inform their purchasing decisions, and in this sense, fake reviews can be misleading. Recently, a court imposed a fine for fake reviews used for advertising purposes.

50K Fine for Fake Reviews!

When purchasing a product or service, users often rely on reviews, but fake reviews can mislead them. In response, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced a new law to combat fake reviews. Now, anyone writing, selling, or purchasing fake reviews can face fines of up to $52,000.

This regulation also covers reviews generated with artificial intelligence. Recent crackdowns on fake reviews on major e-commerce sites like Amazon are crucial for ensuring consumer trust.

Additionally, deceptive reviews by company employees or celebrities on behalf of brands, without transparent disclosure, will be subject to penalties. The commission also banned companies from hiding negative reviews or promoting known fake reviews.

FTC Chair Lina M. Khan called this step an important milestone in combating misleading reviews: “This regulation will prevent Americans from being deceived and serves as a warning to businesses that attempt to manipulate the system with fake reviews, which lead to unfair competition,” she said. Besides these rules, the FTC will also actively address situations creating unfair competition.

As you may know, Mozilla Firefox integrated a shopping feature with a tool called Fakespot last October to expose fake products and misleading reviews. With these legal regulations, we can expect to see fewer unrealistic reviews and comments going forward.