Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 28: To protect consumers’ interests, the central government announced on Saturday that it will build a system to monitor fake reviews placed on e-commerce websites.
On Friday, the consumer affairs ministry and the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) convened a virtual meeting with stakeholders, including e-commerce companies, to explore the prevalence of bogus reviews on their platforms.
Notably, consumers are misled into purchasing online items and services because of fake reviews.
The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) will build these frameworks after evaluating the current process used by e-commerce businesses in India as well as best practises from around the world, according to an official release.
Consumer forums, law schools, lawyers, the FICCI, the CII, and consumer rights advocates, among others, attended the meeting to explore the scope of the problem and the path forward for fraudulent online reviews.
Consumers rely extensively on reviews placed on platforms to see the opinion and experience of users who have already purchased the thing or service because e-commerce entails a virtual shopping experience with no ability to physically inspect or check the product.
“Traceability by ensuring the authenticity of the reviewer and the associated liability of the platform are the two key issues here. Also e-commerce players must disclose as to how they choose the ‘most relevant reviews’ for display in a fair and transparent manner,” said Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh.
According to the statement, all stakeholders agreed that the issue deserves to be monitored closely and appropriate framework governing the fake reviews should be developed for protection of consumer interest.
The statement added that stakeholders from e-commerce companies claimed they have frameworks in place by which they monitor fake reviews and would be pleased to take part in developing a legal framework on the issue.
The meeting focused on how paid reviews, unverifiable reviews, and the lack of disclosure in the case of incentivised reviews made it difficult for customers to distinguish genuine reviews.
