Amazon, Booking.com, Expedia Group, Glassdoor, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot have launched what they call the first global Coalition for Trusted Reviews, a cross-industry collaboration developed to help ensure that consumer reviews on product and services are legitimate.
The group has agreed to address key concerns in an effort to protect consumers and partners from fake reviews, including the development of common standards and definitions for use throughout the industry around what constitutes a fake review and other content moderation terms and measurements. It will also define best practices for hosting online reviews and facilitate information sharing on updated content moderation processes and methods of fake review detection. Shared information will include how fraudulent actors operate, as in the case of companies selling fake reviews to businesses that want to improve their reputations unfairly and improperly. The group also intends to work with academics and public policy leaders to promote the value of reviews and support industry efforts to combat fake content.
Representatives of the companies met in October 2022 at the first-ever Fake Reviews Conference, an event organized by Tripadvisor. Conference participants heard from experts in government, academia and affected businesses on common challenges and potential mitigation approaches related to the issue of fake reviews. The meeting prompted the establishment of a formal coalition to collaborate on public education and encourage ongoing information sharing between members in an effort to decrease review fraud.
Coalition members will next meet in Brussels on December 5 and 6 at a second Fake Reviews Conference organized by Amazon.
“Customer reviews are an important part of the shopping experience, and the goal of this coalition is to ensure every review reflects customers’ actual experiences,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide selling partner services. “Amazon is aggressively fighting fake review brokers to protect our customers and selling partners, but these fraudsters are a global problem, impacting multiple industry sectors. Through greater collaboration and sharing across industries, including information on fraudsters’ tactics and how they operate, we can more effectively shut down fraudulent review activity, deter other bad actors from attempting to game our systems, and protect more consumers.”
