ACM: taking action against fake-review sellers marks a new phase in fight against online deception

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) will take action against the sale of fake reviews. This marks a new phase in ACM’s fight against online deception. It is important that consumers are able to rely on the information that they find online. That is why ACM has launched investigations into market participants that sell fake reviews. ACM had previously taken action against websites that purchased and used fake reviews.

Edwin van Houten, Director of ACM’s Consumer Department, adds: “Online stores that employ online techniques to mislead consumers, and businesses that facilitate these practices result in consumers making wrong choices and losing the confidence to make online purchases. That is why we take action against this. Consumers need to be able to rely on reviews when comparing providers. By taking action against prohibited practices and by educating businesses and consumers, we wish to reduce online deception.”

Dealing with fake-review sellers and users

ACM will take action against fake-review sellers and online stores that use fake reviews. When establishing a violation, ACM can impose fines of up to 900,000 euros per violation.

Consumers read reviews to compare online providers with each other. As a result of fake reviews, it is likely that consumers opt for a less suitable product or service than they would have done if they had had the correct information. It also constitutes a form of unfair competition with providers that do use real customer reviews.

In mid-2022, additional rules for reviews were introduced, including a ban on placing fake customer reviews. ACM was already previously able to take action against online providers that used fake reviews to promote their products or services. With the new rules, ACM can also take action against market participants that sell and submit fake reviews.

Dealing with online deception

The basic principle for dealing with online deception is that consumers must be able to make their purchases in a fair environment. ACM also sees that there are online providers that wish to earn money fast and, in that process, do not take into consideration the interests of their customers. ACM takes action against online deception. By providing information, ACM reminds consumers and businesses of their rights and duties.

Over the past few months, ACM conducted an investigation into misleading countdown timers on websites. Online stores display a clock that counts down next to a special offer. When the time is up, the special offer should no longer be available. These countdown timers put pressure on customers to make decisions quickly. If the special offer continues to be available and the countdown timer simply starts counting down again, it is considered to be misleading. ACM has confronted dozens of online stores that used misleading countdown timers. They have now stopped doing so. Previously, ACM had also taken action against false ‘then/now’-prices. 

Online-store owners themselves are responsible for compliance with rules

In 2020, ACM published the Guidelines on the Protection of the Online Consumer. In these guidelines, the rules regarding online influencing are explained to businesses. The guidelines are also clear about the use of reviews and countdown timers. Recently, ACM studied the degree of commitment to preventing online deception among online stores that are associated with Thuiswinkel, the Dutch trade association for the e-commerce sector, or Webwinkel Keur, a Dutch certification website for the e-commerce sector. This study showed that most participants also strongly reject more subtle forms of deception, and that they find most examples of this type of design to be misleading as well. On the other hand, we also see that online-store owners assume that businesses that design their online stores will make sure that all designs will be compliant with the rules. Online-store owners cannot hide themselves behind this. Online-store owners themselves always remain responsible for violations on their websites. So, as an online-store owner, always check yourself whether your design complies with the rules. If you wish to know whether you have unwittingly added misleading elements to your website, please consult our guidelines (in Dutch).

Since it is difficult for consumers to distinguish between online stores that they can and cannot rely on, ACM provides information on what they can do to assess an online store that they do not know and how they can check reviews properly.