Amazon begins to fight against fake reviews in Europe

Amazon has started its legal fight against fake reviews in Europe. To this end, it has filed its first criminal complaint and its first lawsuit in the UE. 

The e-commerce giant filed a criminal complaint in Italy and its first lawsuit in Spain against companies that market fraudulent reviews of products sold on its platform.

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These two legal proceedings, in addition to 10 other new lawsuits recently initiated in the United States, against the administrators of 11,000 websites and social networking groups that posted fraudulent reviews on Amazon in exchange for free products or money.

Increased security controls for Amazon reviews in Europe 

Amazon has also announced that it will implement more rigorous security controls to ensure a safe purchase for customers, such as the person making the valuation having made purchases over 50 euros. 

For Amazon, this decision highlights its determination to stop fraudsters from profiting from this deception. These actions come as regulators around the world have begun to take steps to eliminate fake reviews. 

Italy will be the first battleground for Amazon to prove if it's truly capable of stopping - both legally and technically - fake reviewers. 

In the case of the Italian lawsuit, Amazon claims that an Italian company hired over a thousand people to produce fake five-star reviews of products that they never truly bought or used. 

Fake reviews all over the world 

The fake reviews issue doesn’t end in Europe and the U.S. in fact it is a global problem. 

The Indian government was preparing regulations that will target people who are paid to endorse products, holding them accountable if any product-related problems arise. And the Chinese and South Korean governments have already also discussed this situation in their e-commerce regulatory institutions. 

Also, the tech company sent warning letters to five German-based websites that were sending visitors to pages buying and selling fake reviews. 

Eventually, these sites agreed to stop this activity by signing a cease-and-desist letter. In addition, Amazon is responsible for reviewing each review, so when a user submits a review it is not instantly visible, thus blocking suspicious reviews.