The US Federal Trade Commission has imposed a fine on a company for the first time for “review hijacking”. The Bountiful Company, manufacturer of the Nature’s Bounty brand of vitamins, was accused in February of deceiving consumers by abusing a feature on Amazon.
Between 2020 and 2021, Bountiful used the feature to make it appear as though some of its newer supplements had higher product reviews and ratings than they actually did.
The feature Bountiful abused is designed by Amazon to highlight different “variations” of the same product, such as different colors, sizes, quantities or flavors. According to the FTC, Bountiful gave newer products a boost by hijacking the ratings and reviews of older, well-established ones with different formulations.
In one internal email obtained by the agency, Bountiful noted that one of its new vitamins was not popular with consumers, but sales spiked when the company “variated the pages”.
The FTC has imposed a $600,000 fine on Bountiful and prohibited the company from using such tactics in the future. The agency stated that “boosting your products by hijacking another product’s ratings or reviews is a relatively new tactic, but is still plain old false advertising”.
Amazon responded by stating that it has measures in place to prevent listing abuse and continuously monitors its store, adding that it would work with the FTC and other enforcement agencies to combat fraud.
Amazon claims that “more than 99 percent” of the products viewed on its marketplace “contain only authentic reviews”. If a consumer suspects a review is fake, they can report it to Amazon, which will investigate and take action.
Amazon policies prohibit reviews abuse, including offering incentives for positive reviews, and the company suspends, bans and takes legal action against those who violate these policies and removes inauthentic reviews.
