Amazon celebrates today”an important victory in Italy in its fight against fake reviews“. Specifically, we are talking about a sentence issued by the Court of Milan which agrees with the e-commerce giant, against those who published fake 5 star ratings.
The site in question had the ironic name of Realreviews.itand was logically shut down, as well as prohibiting its operator from perpetrating similar activities in the future.
In short, a more than deserved victory, but the fight against the phenomenon is far from over.
Problem 1: Fake reviews
Realreviews.it was just one of many examples of a “plague” of which Amazon is well aware. We’re talking about a real one fake review marketwhich clearly tries to dupe consumers with targeted reviews, the real value of which is zero.
Making matters worse are the multiple tactics used to obtain “biased opinions”. For example, there are those who directly address buyers with gods messages included in the sales package.
Or there are those who resort to Web sites And social media, as well as real campaigns on WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services. The aim is always the same: to invite the user to write fake reviews in exchange for various incentiveswhich can be discounts, free products or even money.
At the end of the day I am consumers ripping off other consumers (oh the irony!) in exchange for a refund, mostly. Because everyone likes to have things for free, and it doesn’t hurt if others get involved.
It is therefore very good that the court ruled in favor of Amazon (God forbid!), but how many Will other sites like this need to be shut down before the problem is truly contained?
Amazon boasts “lawyers, expert investigators and analysts to prosecute fake review brokers legally”, but we are still far from stop the phenomenon at the sourceas the e-commerce giant would like.
Problem 2: quality
Let’s be clear: if a product is of good quality, even if many of its reviews are “incentivised”, it is not a real problem. Whoever buys it will still find something worthwhile in their hands, and will be happy. The real short circuit arises when a product is full of 5-star reviews, when in reality it deserves one or two.
And it is not impossible to find poor quality products. Especially if we’re talking about accessories you hate objects of little value, Amazon looks a lot like a Chinese store. And obviously the people who need 5-star reviews the most are those who know that their products aren’t that perfect, otherwise why bother so much?
It’s a bit of a dog chasing its tail, in short. On the one hand we have a “hydra” of fake reviews, on the other a series of products of dubious quality, which if they weren’t actually present on the store it certainly wouldn’t be a drama.
And Amazon seems more intent on cut off heads to the former, rather than preventing access to the latter, which are probably the real source of the phenomenon. Luckily you can always return it, even if there is less time to do so now.
