Protecting the Consumer by Fighting Fake and Manipulated Online Reviews (2022) 29 CCLJ 65
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Date
2022-07-18
DOI
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
LexisNexis Australia
Rights
(c) The author/s
Abstract
Online reviews have a significant impact on consumers and review authenticity must be safeguarded to avoid abuse of consumer trust in decision making. The fight against online reviews which mislead or deceive consumers becomes more difficult as the means of manipulation of the review process becomes more sophisticated. In ACCC v Meriton Property Services Pty Ltd (2017) 350 ALR 494, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission successfully prosecuted an accommodation provider for manipulating customer reviews on the Tripadvisor website. In 2019, the Commerce Commission in New Zealand achieved a significant result in Commerce Commission v Bachcare Ltd [2019] NZDC 25483 which also involved review manipulation. Bachcare Ltd had systematically removed poor guest reviews from its accommodation booking website. These cases show how the manipulation of reviews can be quite sophisticated and difficult to detect. Prosecuting authorities need all the weapons possible to fight fake or manipulated reviews. This article recommends expanding and strengthening the arsenal in New Zealand by encouraging a broad approach to the definition of ‘conduct’ in the Fair Trading Act 1986 (NZ) , similar to that taken by the Federal Court of Australia in Meriton, introducing a new offence of impersonating a consumer and imposing obligations on review website operators to incorporate robust fake review detection mechanisms into their websites.
Description
Keywords
consumer, online reviews. fake, manipulated
Citation
Competition and Consumer Law Journal, 2022, 29 pp. 65 - 77 (13)