Government launches new framework against fake reviews on e-commerce sites to safeguard, protect consumer interest

The central government launched a framework for safeguarding and protecting consumer interest from fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce, an official release of Department of Consumer Affairs said on Monday.

The new standard on fake reviews will have verification of the review author, moderation, and publication process among other provisions. The standards will be applicable to every online platform which publishes consumer reviews, the release also said.

“Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, along with senior officers of the department and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) launched the framework titled Indian Standard (IS) 19000:2022 ‘Online Consumer Reviews — Principles and Requirements for their Collection, Moderation and Publication,” the official statement said.

The standard will initially be voluntary for compliance by all e-commerce platforms. BIS will also develop a Conformity Assessment Scheme for the standard within 15 days to assess compliance.

The standard prescribes specific responsibilities for the review author and the review administrator.

For the review author, these include confirming acceptance of terms and conditions, and providing contact information and for review administrator, these include safeguarding personal information and training of staff.

Violation of the standards by any entity may be considered as an unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights and a consumer may submit such grievances to the National Consumer Helpline, Consumer Fora or the CCPA (Central Consumer Protection Authority).

The standard provides for the responsibilities of organization including developing a code of practice, and necessary stipulations for terms and conditions like accessibility, criteria, and ensuring content does not contain financial information, etc.

The standard also provides for methods for ‘Verification of Review Author’ through email address, identification by telephone call or SMS, confirming registration by clicking on a link, using a captcha system among others to check traceability and genuineness of the review author.

With respect to moderation, the standard provides for both automated and manual moderation and provides checks for analyzing the review content.

As regards publication, the standard includes considerations for the review administrator at the time of publication process and after the publication process. The accuracy of the review, default display, and weightage of ratings are defined in the publication process.

The standard is expected to benefit all stakeholders in the e-commerce ecosystem i.e., consumers, e-commerce platforms, sellers etc. It will help usher in confidence among consumers to purchase goods online and help them take better purchase decisions.

Lately, there has been a steady rise in e-commerce transactions across the country. Reviews posted online, play a significant role in making purchase decisions and consumers exceedingly rely on reviews posted on e-commerce platforms to see the opinion and experiences of users who have already purchased the good or service.

Given that e-commerce involves a virtual shopping experience without any opportunity to physically view or examine the product, it is essential that reviews are genuine and authentic.

Taking cognizance of the impact of fake and deceptive reviews and protection of consumer interest in e-commerce, the Department of Consumer Affairs constituted a committee to develop framework on checking fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce on 10th June 2022.

The committee included various stakeholders including e-commerce companies, industry associations, consumer organizations and law chairpersons.