In an effort to protect the interests of consumers, the government said on Saturday that it would build a system to monitor bogus reviews on e-commerce platforms. A virtual conference with stakeholders, including e-commerce companies, was conducted by the Consumer Affairs Ministry and the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) on Friday to examine the enormity of bogus reviews on their platforms. Consumers are led astray by fraudulent reviews and end up paying more than they should.
The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), according to a statement, would build these frameworks after evaluating the current process used by Indian e-commerce companies and worldwide best practises.
Consumer groups, law schools, attorneys, FICCI, CII, and consumer rights advocates were among those in attendance to examine the scope of the issue and possible solutions to fraudulent online reviews.
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Because of the virtual nature of e-commerce and the lack of a chance to feel or touch the object before making a purchase, customers mainly rely on the opinions and experiences of others who have made similar purchases.
“In this case, verifying that the reviewer is real and the platform is liable are the most important considerations. When it comes to selecting the “most relevant” reviews, e-commerce companies must be clear about the process of selecting them “Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh stated this.
For the sake of consumer protection, the statement stated that the issue should be continuously monitored and an adequate structure for regulating bogus reviews should be devised, which all parties agreed to,
Online retailers’ representatives said they have systems in place to detect fraudulent customer reviews and would be happy to participate in building a legislative framework for this problem.
The Department of Consumer Affairs was represented by Nidhi Khare, additional secretary, and Anupam Mishra, joint secretary.
False and misleading evaluations have a negative influence on customer confidence, according to ASCI CEO Manisha Kapoor.
Consumers have a hard time spotting genuine reviews because of factors including bought reviews, unverifiable reviews, and a lack of disclosure when incentives are involved.
