Govt to talk with e-commerce majors over fake reviews
Ravi Dutta Mishra
NEW DELHI: Government officials will meet e-commerce representatives to address concerns over fake reviews that lure consumers into buying services or products online.
Officials of the department of consumer affairs, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and e-commerce executives will meet on May 27.
“Discussions will be on the impact of misleading reviews on the consumers, and measures to prevent such anomaly,” the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution said in a statement. Besides, ecommerce players such as Tata Sons and Reliance Retail, representatives of consumer forums, law universities, lawyers, consumer rights activists, Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry will attend the meeting.
Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, department of consumer affairs, shared a report by the European Commission, with results of an Eu-wide study on online consumer reviews of 223 major websites. “The screening results underlines at least 55% of websites violate unfair commercial practices directive of the EU which requires truthful information to be presented to the consumers to make an informed choice,” the ministry added.
In 144 of the 223 websites checked, the authorities could not confirm whether traders were doing enough to ensure reviews were authentic.
In his letter, Singh stressed on the urgency to quell the spread of fake reviews and misleading information considering the rise in online shopping on the back of the growing internet and smartphone use. “Due to fake and misleading reviews, the right to be informed is violated. Since the issue impacts people shopping online and has significant impact on the rights of a consumer, it is important to examine with greater scrutiny and detail,” Singh added.