Trustpilot has launched its first legal action against a company accused of soliciting fake reviews in order to boost its standing online.
The Danish reviews platform is used by many consumers to check the reputation of companies they have not previously done business with. Checks like these became increasingly popular during the pandemic as more people flocked online.
Yet Trustpilot recently claimed that fake reviews are rife. It was forced to remove over 2.2 million in 2020 alone, accounting for nearly 6% of those submitted to its site that year.
The subject of its first legal case is Global Migrate, a UK-based immigration company that Trustpilot claimed has failed to respond to repeated “enforcement action.”
In other words, the company has done nothing to stop its practice of allegedly soliciting fake reviews, despite receiving multiple warnings and a cease-and-desist notice, according to Trustpilot.
The reviews giant claimed its fraud and investigation analysts found evidence to suggest more than 700 fabricated reviews were submitted to Global Migrate’s Trustpilot profile page.
Despite multiple customers complaining that Global Migrate had scammed them, its overall Trustpilot rating is 2.3, with over 57% of reviews rated “excellent.”
Trustpilot claims that the firm has continued to abuse its platform even following the enforcement action.
“Anyone trying to misuse reviews to potentially mislead consumer opinion will be held accountable. We don’t accept this behavior and will do everything within our power to stamp out businesses who attempt to manipulate or cheat our system,” said Trustpilot’s chief trust officer, Carolyn Jameson.
“Trustpilot exists to build trust between businesses and consumers, which is why our rules are so important. In order to protect consumers and help ensure they are able to shop with confidence, we are increasing our enforcement strategy – it is the right, and necessary, thing to do.”
Fake online reviews are a growing problem, linked to $152bn in global purchases annually.