![]() If you display reviews when the reviewer has a material connection to the company offering the product or service - for example, when the reviewer has received compensation or a free product in exchange for their review - that relationship should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed. ![]() For example, it could be deceptive to feature the positive ones more prominently. ![]() Don't display reviews in a misleading way. Publish all genuine reviews and don't exclude negative ones. In terms of the publication of reviews, the FTC stated it "favor transparency" and issued five principles to guide platforms: With respect to moderation, the FTC reminded platforms not to "edit reviews to alter the message" and to "reat positive and negative reviews equally" (i.e., do not subject negative reviews to greater scrutiny). Simultaneously with the announcement of the action against Fashion Nova, the FTC released informal guidance to marketers and platforms with respect to the collection, moderation, and publication of reviews. The FTC stated it had reached a tentative consent agreement with Fashion Nova (to be finalized after a public comment period) in which the online retailer had agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle the allegations and display "all reviews" posted by customers on its website, except those reviews that are: (1) unrelated to Fashion Nova's products or Fashion Nova's customer service, delivery, returns, or exchanges and (2) unlawful, profane, obscene, vulgar, or sexually explicit, or content that is inappropriate with respect to race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, so long as the criteria for withholding such reviews is applied uniformly across all reviews. Consequently, the FTC claimed that Fashion Nova had represented "directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that the product reviews on website accurately reflect the views of all purchasers who submitted reviews" when that was, in fact, not the case. Each product page on Fashion Nova's website displays the product's average star rating and a summary graph of the number of reviews with each star rating, followed by the individual consumers' ratings and reviews.Īccording to the FTC's complaint, Fashion Nova used a review management service to automatically post four and five-star reviews but withhold thousands of lower-starred reviews. Like many online retailers, Fashion Nova's website features customer reviews for its products on a five-star scale. On January 25, 2022, the FTC announced it had sued and reached a settlement with fast-fashion retailer Fashion Nova, LLC. For the first time, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken aim at a company's failure to publish negative customer reviews on its website, claiming such a practice is deceptive and violates the FTC Act.
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