Walmart China fined over $ 47k for default Sam’s Club app reviews

Walmart China has been fined 300,000 yuan ($47,218) for using default five-star ratings for products on the Sam’s Club app. The Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation (GAMR) deemed that such false commercial publicity would deceive and mislead consumers.

Sam’s Club found itself in hot water since it was exposed to have removed certain products from Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in December. The business later claimed “it did not deliberately remove goods sourced from the Xinjiang region.”

But the anger it sparked among Chinese consumers led to significant cancellations of Sam’s Club memberships across the country.

The topic “Sam’s club app gives default fivestar rating for products” went viral on Twitterlike Sina Weibo on Friday and was viewed more than 200 million times as of 6 pm.

Under a product named crispy kumquat on the Sam’s Club app, it can be seen that a large number of bad reviews appeared from December 9, while the latest bad review prior to that was in April 2021.

Between October 13, 2020 and May 17, 2021, Walmart (China) Investment used the app of Sam’s Club to sell goods online. When users failed to record an active comment on the products they purchased within a designated period, the background system of the app will automatically default to a five-star review, and add the rating into the evaluation system, which is displayed on the product page, according to an investigation conducted by the GAMR.

GAMR said this constitutes false commercial publicity for product evaluation that deceived and misled consumers. Walmart China was one of a number of firms to come under the competition law spotlight, with the GAMR stating that the case “has a good demonstration effect of interpreting law by case.”