After pressure from the media and government agencies over paid reviews on its site, Amazon took legal action against paid reviews. On Tuesday, the company filed lawsuits against AppSally and Rebatest, firms that Amazon claims sell “fake”positive Amazon reviews.
Claims: 5 star reviews for sale
Amazon’s two lawsuits in King County Superior Court in Seattle against AppSally (PDF) and Rebatest (PDF) detail fake review packages allegedly offered by companies that have both been operating since at least 2018. Amazon believes that AppSally and Rebatest are undermining customer confidence by selling packages that allow sellers to pay for positive reviews of their products.
The Amazon Community Guidelines state that “creating, modifying, or posting content in exchange for compensation of any kind (including free or discounted products, refunds, or refunds)”and “offering or requesting compensation (including free or discounted products)”in exchange to create, modify, or publish content” is not permitted.
But according to one Amazon lawsuit, AppSally sells at least 16 different packages that offer Amazon reviews.
Amazon also claims that AppSally tells sellers to send it draft reviews that they would like to see in their products.
AppSally describes itself as a “curated marketplace for growth”that “matches marketers to give you easy access to best-in-class marketers used by high-growth companies”and offers “reputation management, influencer marketing and more.”
Rebatest allegedly also sells reviews. The company is reportedly requiring Amazon sellers to “reimburse purchases made by reviewers,”Amazon said in a statement. The complaint states that Rebatest allows Amazon sellers to “rate”users who can view their products “to determine a reviewer’s willingness to provide positive reviews and to preview and approve reviews before they are published.”
The filing also states that reviewers may no longer be eligible for a refund on a purchase if they do not leave enough positive reviews.
According to the Amazon Seller Central website, “If you choose to ask a buyer to leave a review, you cannot request positive feedback or request feedback only from buyers who have had a positive experience, nor can you ask customers to change or remove their review or attempt influence the review.
Amazon wants to shut down AppSally and Rebatest and seek information from companies to identify related reviews and parties involved. He also wants the companies to “splash out their profits”and pay triple compensation for damages and legal costs.
Neither AppSally nor Rebatest returned a request for comment in time for publication.
Amazon says fake reviews tarnish its brand
Amazon is concerned about fake reviews that prevent people from buying and selling products on Amazon. In addition to pointing out the ability of fake reviews to “tarnish the Amazon brand,”the company’s complaints refer to the bad publicity it has received due to media coverage of the spread of fake reviews.
The complaints cite a Wall Street Journal article titled “Fake reviews and inflated ratings continue to be a problem for Amazon. “Two days later, Congress continued its consideration of the report with a request “regarding Amazon’s work to ensure the credibility of reviews.”
Amazon says it uses worker teams and machine learning to combat fake reviews and has prevented over 200 million suspicious cases in 2020.