On the heels of a significant enforcement action against an ecommerce retailer over customer reviews, the FTC released two new guidance documents.
You might already know that the FTC has brought lawsuits against brands and marketers for hiding negative reviews, paying for positive reviews, creating fake reviews, failing to disclose incentives, and other deceptive acts.
Here are the bullet points, quoting from the new FTC docs:
For marketers:
• Don’t ask for reviews from people who haven’t used your product or service.
• Don’t ask staff to write reviews of your business unless they disclose that relationship.
• Don’t ask for reviews only from customers you think will leave positive ones.
• Don’t ask family and friends for reviews unless they disclose that relationship.
• If you offer incentives for reviews, don’t condition it on the review being positive.
• If you offer incentives, the incentive needs to be disclosed.
For review platforms and review sites:
• Don’t ask for reviews only from people you think will leave positive ones.
• If you offer incentives for reviews, don’t condition it on the review being positive.
• Don’t discourage or prevent people from leaving negative reviews.
• Have some process in place to verify that reviews are real.
• Don’t edit reviews to make them sound more positive.
• Treat negative and positive reviews equally: publish both; don’t feature some more prominently than others.
• Clearly disclose how you collect and display reviews and determine overall ratings.
When the FTC issues “guidance,” more actions typically follow.
But enforcement in this area isn’t new—some other examples:
-In 2015, the FTC sued AmeriFreight, a car shipment broker, because it showcased online customer reviews without disclosing that the reviewers were given discounts and entries into giveaways.
-In 2019, the FTC sued UrthBox for its practice of providing free products to customers in exchange for positive reviews and not disclosing the relationship.
-In 2020, the FTC obtained a $23.9M judgment against student loan debt relief operator who failed to disclose customers were paid to leave positive BBB reviews.