UK secures action from Amazon to tackle fake reviews
LONDON :Amazon has committed to do more to tackle fake reviews, including sanctioning British businesses that boost their ratings through bogus posts, the country's competition watchdog said on Friday.
Following a four-year probe, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Amazon's undertakings also addressed its concerns about 'catalogue abuse' where sellers use the reviews of well-performing unrelated products to boost ratings and mislead customers.
Companies that break the rules could be banned from selling on the e-commerce giant's platform altogether, while users who post fake reviews could be banned from posting reviews.
Amazon also committed to robust processes to quickly detect and remove fake reviews and catalogue abuse, the CMA said.
The regulator, which estimates that 90 per cent of consumers use online reviews to inform purchases, began investigating Amazon and Google in 2021 over possible breaches of consumer protection law. It secured similar commitments from Google in January.
"These new commitments matter and help set the standard," CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement.
The watchdog is conducting an initial sweep of review platforms following the release of new reviews guidance in April, seeking to identify platforms that may need to do more to comply with consumer law.
Under its newly-granted powers, the CMA can independently decide whether consumer law has been infringed and take action in case of breaches, including issuing fines and ordering businesses to improve their practices.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
3 hours ago
- CNA
US and China set for trade talks in London on Monday
WASHINGTON: Three of US President Donald Trump's top aides will meet with their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday (Jun 9) for talks aimed at resolving a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the United States in the talks, Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social platform without providing further details. China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that vice premier He Lifeng will be in the United Kingdom between June 8 and June 13, adding that the first meeting of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism would be held during this visit. "The meeting should go very well," Trump wrote. Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a dispute over critical minerals. Trump and Xi agreed to visit one another and asked their staffs to hold talks in the meantime. Both countries are under pressure to relieve tensions, with the global economy under pressure over Chinese control over the rare earth mineral exports of which it is the dominant producer and investors more broadly anxious about Trump's wider effort to impose tariffs on goods from most US trading partners. China, meanwhile, has seen its own supply of key US imports like chip-design software and nuclear plant parts curtailed. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 in Geneva to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump returned to the presidency in January. That preliminary deal sparked a global relief rally in stock markets, and US indexes that had been in or near bear market levels have recouped the lion's share of their losses. The S&P 500 stock index, which at its lowest point in early April was down nearly 18 per cent after Trump unveiled his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on goods from across the globe, is now only about 2 per cent below its record high from mid-February. The final third of that rally followed the US-China truce struck in Geneva. Still, that temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model. Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives. China sees mineral exports as a source of leverage. Halting those exports could put domestic political pressure on the Republican US president if economic growth sags because companies cannot make mineral-powered products. In recent years, US officials have identified China as its top geopolitical rival and the only country in the world able to challenge the United States economically and militarily.
CNA
20 hours ago
- CNA
US, China to hold trade talks on Jun 9 in London, Trump says
WASHINGTON: Three of President Donald Trump's top aides will face their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday (Jun 9) for talks to resolve a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent Washington in the talks, said Trump, who announced the talks in a post on his Truth Social platform but provided no more details. It was not immediately clear who would represent China. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details. "The meeting should go very well," Trump wrote. Trump also said on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to restart the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets to the US. Asked directly by a reporter aboard Air Force One whether Xi had agreed to do so, Trump replied: "Yes, he did." He added: "We're very far advanced on the China deal. The scheduling of the meeting comes a day after Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals. Trump and Xi agreed to visit one another and asked their staffs to hold talks in the meantime. Both countries are under pressure to relieve tensions, with the global economy under pressure over Chinese control over the rare earth mineral exports of which it is the dominant producer and investors more broadly anxious about Trump's wider effort to impose tariffs on goods from most US trading partners. China, meanwhile, has seen its own supply of key US imports like chip-design software and nuclear plant parts curtailed. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 in Geneva to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump's January inauguration. That preliminary deal sparked a global relief rally in stock markets, and US indexes that had been in or near bear market levels have recouped the lion's share of their losses. The S&P 500 stock index, which at its lowest point in early April was down nearly 18 percent after Trump unveiled his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on goods from across the globe, is now only about 2 percent below its record high from mid-February. The final third of that rally followed the US-China truce struck in Geneva. Still, that temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives. Beijing sees mineral exports as a source of leverage, halting those exports could put domestic political pressure on the Republican US president if economic growth sags because companies cannot make mineral-powered products. In recent years, the United States has identified China as its top geopolitical rival and the only country in the world able to challenge the US economically and militarily.
CNA
a day ago
- CNA
US, China to hold trade talks on June 9 in London, Trump says
US President Trump on Friday (Jun 6) said three of his cabinet officials will meet with representatives of China in London on Jun 9 to discuss a trade deal. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend from the US side. "The meeting should go very well," Trump wrote. The scheduling of the meeting comes a day after Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump's January inauguration. Though stocks rallied, the temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model.
