Fake reviews and comments on websites are numbered: on May 28, new regulations will come into force that will toughen the current law, with the aim of protecting consumers from these unfair commercial practices.
The decision follows an analysis by the European Commission and consumer protection authorities, which reviewed reviews on a total of 223 EU websites. It was found that 55% of the websites analysed, including online shops, marketplaces, booking websites, search engines and personalised comparison service sites, infringed current unfair trading practices regulations regarding the reviews they include.
According to studies, nearly 90% of users who make purchases or reservations online are interested in the comments of other people before making a decision, so reviews and ratings have a great effect on customer behaviour. Therefore, this new legislation seeks above all to protect consumers from false reviews and covert advertising, providing them with clear and visible information about the reliability of these comments.
What Changes Will the New Regulations Bring?
The new regulations that control misleading practices related to reviews are developed in articles 6 and 7 of the Directive on unfair commercial practices. Thus, among the changes that will be applied, the following stand out:- Selling, buying and sending fake reviews to promote products is prohibited.
- Obligation to inform users about the handling of reviews.
- Fake reviews are considered an unfair practice , so website owners will be responsible for ensuring that the opinions that appear on them come from consumers who have purchased the product or enjoyed the service they are talking about.
- Regarding covert advertising on social media: every time an exchange between a brand and an influencer takes place, it must be mentioned in some way, distinguishing between the brand's own content and that of the influencer. Thus, the responsibility falls on both parties, both the brand and the influencer .
- When providing search results for products and services, search engines are required to provide the criteria used to rank the results and their relevance. This information must appear in a specific and accessible manner alongside the results.
- Ban on online covert advertising.
- Prosecution of illegal ticket resale to events.
- Obligation of search engines to show the parameters they take into account when ranking results.
How to Comply with the New Law in Ecommerce?
According to the COMPLIANCE DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/2161 law , in order to comply with it, e-commerce sites must guarantee that the reviews have been made by consumers or users who have purchased said items or services, so entrepreneurs must provide clear information on the way in which these comments are received and analyzed. Therefore, it is essential that only those reviews whose authenticity has been verified are published on e-commerce sites, avoiding in any way the inclusion of false content.How can the “Prestashop Store Reviews + Product Reviews + Rich Snippets” module help you?
The module developed by Línea Gráfica “Prestashop Store Reviews + Product Reviews + Rich Snippets” is the perfect tool for your online store to comply with the new law. It will allow you to implement your verified opinion system in your store and products, both comments and ratings, and Google Rich Snippets. In addition, it allows you to choose whether you want to activate the following options, with which your ecommerce will comply with the law in relation to the new regulations. First of all, reviews posted on the store that do not come from registered users will not be taken into account. In the case of reviews on products, they must also have completed a purchase of the specific item about which the review is posted. In this way, only customers who have purchased a product will be able to review it. In addition, the mechanisms for importing reviews or allowing them to be published from the public product page will be blocked at the administrator's discretion, provided that the law compliance option is active , and a message will be displayed indicating that the law is being complied with at all points on the website where registered customer reviews are displayed.
Get the verified reviews module!
We hope we have resolved your doubts about the new law against fake reviews. In addition, at Línea Gráfica we have a wide catalog of Prestashop Modules that will help you have a high-performance online store. Contact us for anything you need.
