EBay shoppers being misled due to system flaw, says Which?

eBay shoppers are being misled into purchasing poor and counterfeit products because of a flaw in the website’s review system, according to Which?

The consumer group claims sellers are able to easily exploit the shopping platform’s review system to attach glowing reviews on inferior products.

When adding items for sale to eBay, people can use a product ID which pulls relevant information from a central database to make the listing process simpler, including reviews.

As a result, reviews from all listings claiming to be the same item can be shared, regardless of the seller or the condition of the product.

Which? says its investigation uncovered a number of product listings that shared the same reviews, despite clearly looking different from each other in images posted by the seller.

Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?, said: “The CMA must now investigate how fake and misleading reviews are duping online shoppers, taking the strongest possible action against sites that fail to tackle the problem.”

eBay responded to the report saying it would investigate Which’s claims on these items, but disputed some aspects .

“The research does not fully consider that there are distinctions between product reviews (which provide buyers with a holistic review of the same product), and seller feedback (which can be used to see specific reviews of a seller’s performance and may reflect the item’s condition),” a spokesman for the firm said.