Amazon has sued three of its sellers for allegedly posting fake reviews of their products.
The three sellers sued are sole proprietors Michael Abbara of California, Kurt Bauer of Pennsylvania, and a Chinese company, CCBetter Direct. Amazon claims that fake reviews accounted for 30-45% of total customer ratings.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Our goal is to eliminate the incentive to abuse fake reviews. The vast majority of Amazon reviews are authentic, helping millions of customers make informed purchasing decisions every day.”.
Since early 2015, Amazon has shut down more than 1,000 resellers for posting fake reviews to attract customers, but this is the first time it has taken legal action. The three sellers are being sued on charges that they created fake accounts to write favorable reviews, distorting the ratings of the real market.
If Amazon wins the case against the defendants, the latter could be banned from the website and forced to give their profits to the company by paying attorneys' fees as well as compensation of more than $25,000.
These consequences could be enough to convince other sellers not to break the law and play by the company's rules and terms.
