Customer reviews can be a powerful marketing tool if deployed correctly. The general principle of using reviews in compliance with the law can be distilled into a single concept: marketing using customer reviews should reflect feedback received from legitimate customers about their real experiences.
As a threshold matter this means that a business should only utilize reviews by real customers who have actually purchased and used the reviewed product. Though it seems obvious, this means that reviews should not be written by staff or paid for from third parties who do not actually use the products. It also means that reviews of one product should not be applied to another.
Methods of obtaining reviews should be unbiased. This means that a business should permit all customers to provide reviews, and should not only seek reviews from customers it thinks will provide positive feedback.
Offering incentives for reviews can create significant issues because it results in bias, especially if the paid nature of the review isn’t disclosed. If incentives are provided for reviews, (1) the incentive should not be expressly or implicitly conditioned on the review being positive and (2) the existence and nature of the incentive must be disclosed as part of the review. The FTC is currently considering a rule which would prohibit purchasing or incentivizing reviews.
Moderation and display of reviews should also be unbiased. It is generally fine to remove reviews that are fake, harassing, obscene, deceptive, or otherwise problematic. However, a negative but truthful review should not be removed or hidden. And of course, the contents of a review should not be modified to cause the review to convey a different message. Manipulating reviews can have serious consequences. In 2022, clothing retailer Fashion Nova settled with the FTC for $4.2 million over claims that company suppressed negative reviews from its website. In Re Fashion Nova LLC, Docket No. C-4759 (Fed. Trade Comm. Mar. 18, 2022).
These rules apply to a businesses use of customer reviews, but also to third-party review aggregation sites. A business using these sites may be liable for any violations committed by these outside review sites. Our advertising and marketing attorneys can provide more information on the proper and legal use of customer reviews.
