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TripAdvisor Fined In Italy For Fake Reviews

Posted by Soulskill on from the italy:-1-star,-didn't-elect-me-king dept.

mpicpp writes with news that TripAdvisor, a travel website filled with user-generated reviews, has been hit with a €500,000 ($611,000) fine for "misleading customers" by failing to cull fake reviews from their list. "The regulator complained that people reading TripAdvisor Italy were unable to distinguish between genuine and fake reviews posted on the site. It said both were presented by TripAdvisor as 'authentic and genuine in nature.' Demanding payment of the fine within 30 days, the ICA also accused the travel company of failing to provide proper checks to weed out bogus postings."

3 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Devil's Advocate says... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The regulator complained that people reading TripAdvisor Italy were unable to distinguish between genuine and fake reviews posted on the site.

    So how is TripAdvisor supposed to do it?

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    1. Re:Devil's Advocate says... by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Either that or get the content up to the promised accuracy (that seems impossible though).

      No it's not. It's called "secret shopper", a.k.a -- the company pays for their own content by hiring a reviewer who does not tell the establishment he is there to professionally review them and instead poses as a regular customer so he gets no special treatment.

      But in an ever repeating cycle, companies today want to crowdsource (get for free) the content that drives people to visit them. Low investment = low quality. Much like news outlets' quality goes down as they start using user submissions, tips and rumors from social networking, and amateur visuals because they dont' want to pay for professional journalists and cameramen.

  2. Re:WTH iIs the Italian Competition Authority by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Because said companies fradulently claim these reviews are legitimate." *citation needed.

    They were not fined because they had fake reviews in the first place; they were fined for fraudolent advertising, because their billboards were like "I haz one bazillion reviews!! And they are totally genuine and authentic from real people!!1!"

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