On July 21, 2017 ICPEN (the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network comprising consumer protection authorities from 60 countries) re-launched its 2016 guidelines for fair and transparent collection, moderation and publication of online reviews.
Online feedbacks have become a growing tool for consumers and businesses to better inform the purchasing decisions while improving the available products and services. However, when they are not based on genuine user experience, such reviews may be misleading and affect negatively consumers and competition.
In view of ruling out any misuse of such powerful tool, in 2016 ICPEN published clear guidelines encouraging:
- review administrators to be equal and fair in the collection of reviews, proactive in their moderation and transparent in the publication;
- trading and marketing professionals to publish genuine reviews while disclosing paid-for content clearly and prominently;
- digital influencers to give fair views on markets, businesses, goods and services.
In order to foster its revamped campaign against misleading reviews, ICPEN has also published examples of the actions that Member States have taken to improve practices in this area. One of the most recent cases concerns Airbnb Ireland which – following inquiries by the UK Competition and Markets Authority that is a member of ICPEN – has offered to change its reviews system by 31 August 2017.
Recently another member of ICPEN, the Italian AGCM, has opened an investigation on the influencer marketing practices carried out on social media, sending moral suasion letters to some of the main influencers and companies producing the branded goods displayed in the posts.