Amazon sues administrators of more than 11,000 Facebook groups that allegedly brokered fake online reviews
CNN
Amazon said Tuesday it has sued the administrators of more than 11,000 Facebook groups allegedly responsible for facilitating the purchase and sale of fake reviews on Amazon's marketplace in seven countries.
The group operators are accused of recruiting people to write fake or misleading product reviews in exchange for money or free items, Amazon said in a release.
Fake reviews have been a headache for Amazon for years and can lead to consumers buying sub-par or questionable products. But the issue grew much worse during the pandemic, when demand for e-commerce exploded and unscrupulous merchants found new opportunities to use fake reviews to juice their business. The trend has prompted UK regulators to open an investigation into whether Amazon and Google have harmed consumers by failing to sufficiently protect them from fake reviews. Amazon and Google said last year that they would cooperate with the inquiry.
