Reviews on most websites 'misleading and unreliable'
Ecommerce - smartphone - Photo by form PxHere
(BRUSSELS) - Almost two thirds of online shops, booking websites, search engines and comparison sites triggered doubts about the reliability of the reviews, an EU-wide website 'sweep' found on Thursday.
The EU-wide website screening ("sweep") on online consumer reviews was conducted by the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities.
Under the coordination of the Commission, authorities of 26 Member States, Iceland and Norway checked 223 major websites for misleading consumer reviews. In 144 out of the 223 websites checked, authorities could not confirm that these traders were doing enough to ensure that reviews are authentic, i. e. that they were posted by consumers that actually used the product or service that they reviewed.
"Consumers very often rely on online reviews when shopping or booking online," said Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders: "I don't want consumers to be tricked. I want them to be able to interact in a trustworthy environment."
He underlined the importance of online businesses providing consumers with clear and visible information on the reliability of reviews.
Other findings of the screening of websites on online reviews:
- 104 out of the 223 of the websites examined do not inform consumers how reviews are collected and processed. Only 84 websites make such information accessible to consumers on the review page itself, while the rest mention it in "small print", for example in their legal terms and conditions.
- 118 websites did not contain information about how fake reviews are prevented. In these cases consumers have no possibility to verify whether reviews were written by consumers that actually used the product or service.
- 176 of the websites do not mention that incentivised reviews (e.g. resulting from a monetary reward) are prohibited by their internal policies or if not how they ensure they are flagged as incentivised.
Consumer protection authorities concluded that at least 55% of the checked websites potentially violate the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive which requires that truthful information is presented to consumers to allow an informed choice. Authorities also had doubts for a remaining 18%.
National authorities will be contacting the traders concerned to rectify their websites and, if necessary, initiate enforcement actions according to their national procedures.
The Commission says it will continue working with the CPC Network and support national authorities in their enforcement actions.