Amazon bans 'incentivized' reviews

Amazon has announced it has made changes to its Community Guidelines so that incentivized reviews become a thing of the past, other than those resulting from Amazon's own Vine programme.

Although Amazon actively prohibits compensation for reviews, and has cracked down on the practice by bringing lawsuits against businesses that pay for fake reviews as well as those who write them, it has, historically, allowed businesses to offer free or discounted products to customers in exchange for a review. The only stipulation was that reviewers had to specify that they were were affiliated with the business and had not necessarily paid for the items. Although reviewers were free to write whatever they wanted about the products, studies have shown that these incentivized reviews tend to be overwhelmingly positive.

Customers have begun to lose faith in the review system, so Amazon has taken these steps to ensure that reviews are legitimate and unbiased.

Read the full release here.

Image : Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com

Source : Insight DIY

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