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posted by on Friday April 10 2015, @12:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-what-she-said dept.

Reuters reports that in the first ever suit of its kind from Amazon, the online retailer has sued four websites to stop them from selling fake, positive product reviews. The suit accuses Jay Gentile of California and websites that operate as buyamazonreviews.com and buyazonreviews.com, among others, of trademark infringement, false advertising and violations of the Anticyber­squatting Consumer Protection Act and the Washington Consumer Protection Act. Amazon says the defendants are misleading customers, and through their activity generating improper profit for themselves and a "handful" of dishonest sellers and manufacturers. Amazon says the defendants have caused reviews to be posted on its website intermittently, through a "slow drip" designed to evade its detection systems, at a typical cost of $19 to $22 per review. "While small in number, these reviews threaten to undermine the trust that customers, and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers, place in Amazon, thereby tarnishing Amazon’s brand."

Mark Collins, the owner of buyamazonreviews.com, denies Amazon’s claims and says the site simply offers to help Amazon’s third-party sellers get reviews. Collins defended his business, writing that his website operates as a “middleman,” connecting sellers with buyers willing to write reviews. The sellers provide reviewers with discounted items. But he said there are no restriction on the type of review they can post. “We are not selling fake reviews. however we do provide Unbiased and Honest reviews on all the products,” Collins wrote. “And this is not illegal at all.”

 
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  • (Score: 1) by rondon on Friday April 10 2015, @01:42PM

    by rondon (5167) on Friday April 10 2015, @01:42PM (#168739)

    If I'm not mistaken, Amazon runs a program* where select people get free stuff to create reviews, much as the "defendants" claim that they are doing. Is this Amazon trying to clean up their reviews, or trying to squash a competing service.

    *To the best of my knowledge, these reviews are flagged in such a way that a wary customer could find out they are biased. However, it isn't easy or intuitive.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2015, @02:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2015, @02:29PM (#168749)

    Amazon and other sites have a "verified purchaser" label for reviews that meet the qualifications, so that's what that is about. The "buy reviews" site most likely had no intention of actually reading the book.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Daiv on Friday April 10 2015, @04:57PM

      by Daiv (3940) on Friday April 10 2015, @04:57PM (#168775)

      OP is talking about Amazon Vine, where Amazon customers are sent free products with the expectation that receiving them for free will improve their perception of the item and they will leave positive reviews. http://www.amazon.com/gp/vine/help [amazon.com]