Amazon, Google Face UK Probe Over Fake Reviews -- Update
June 25 2021 - 5:10AM
Dow Jones News
--UK antitrust watchdog opens probe into US tech giants
--Investigation motivated by concern companies aren't properly
addressing issue
--Amazon said it will continue to assist with the enquiries
By Adria Calatayud and Joe Hoppe
The U.K.'s antitrust watchdog said Friday that it has launched
an investigation into whether Amazon.com Inc. and Google are doing
enough to crack down on fake reviews, adding a new layer to
regulatory scrutiny of U.S. tech giants.
The Competition and Markets Authority said the move stems from
concerns Amazon and Alphabet Inc.'s Google hasn't been doing enough
to address fake reviews on their sites, but added that it hasn't
yet reached a view on whether the companies have broken the
law.
The move comes amid recent investigations into tech giants'
market power and privacy practices, turning the spotlight to
misleading online reviews. The coronavirus pandemic has prompted a
shift to online consumption, increasing consumers' reliance on
online reviews to decide on product purchases.
In February, U.K. consumer group Which? said it found
review-manipulation services that sold positive-review campaigns,
offered free or discounted products in exchange for reviews or sold
contact details for Amazon reviewers.
The CMA said it will gather information to determine whether the
companies have broken consumer law by not taking enough action to
protect shoppers from fake reviews for online products.
The CMA's decision follows an initial investigation, opened in
May 2020, assessing several platforms' internal systems and
processes for spotting and dealing with fake reviews. The work
raised concerns that Amazon and Google weren't doing enough to
detect fake and misleading reviews and suspicious behavior,
investigate and promptly remove fake reviews, or impose adequate
sanctions on reviewers or businesses to deter them.
The CMA also said it was concerned Amazon's systems were failing
to adequately stop or deter sellers from manipulating product
listings--like co-opting reviews from other products.
"It is important that these tech platforms take responsibility
and we stand ready to take action if we find that they aren't doing
enough," CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said.
Amazon said it devotes significant resources to preventing fake
or incentivized reviews from appearing in its store and to ensure
reviews accurately reflect customers' experience.
"We will continue to assist the CMA with its enquiries and we
note its confirmation that no findings have been made against our
business," an Amazon spokesman said.
Amazon says it stopped more than 200 million suspected fake
reviews last year before they were seen by customers, and that it
is taking action against reviews and customer accounts sold on
external social-media sites. In the first quarter of 2021, it
reported more than 1,000 social-media groups.
Google didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Facebook Inc. and eBay Inc. last year committed to combat
trading in fake and misleading reviews on their sites, in response
to concerns raised by the CMA. In April, the regulator said
Facebook had removed 16,000 groups that sold fake reviews on both
Facebook and Instagram.
The regulator said its probe into fake reviews is part of a
broader program to establish a new regulatory regime for digital
markets. Last week, the CMA said it was launching a study into
Apple Inc. and Google's mobile ecosystems and earlier in June said
it would have oversight over Google's removal of user-tracking
technology from its Chrome browser under a set of commitments from
the company to settle an antitrust investigation.
European Union regulators are also ramping up scrutiny for U.S.
tech giants. The European Commission, the EU's top antitrust
enforcer, on Tuesday opened an antitrust investigation into
allegations that Google is abusing its leading role in the
advertising-technology sector.
Early in June, the EU and the U.K. opened formal antitrust
investigations into Facebook Inc.'s classified-ads service,
Marketplace. On April 30, the European Commission charged Apple
with antitrust violations for allegedly abusing its control over
the distribution of music-streaming apps.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com and Joe
Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 25, 2021 05:04 ET (09:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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