Coalition for Trusted Reviews: Amazon, TripAdvisor, and Others Fight Fake Reviews

Nothing matters more these days than how we spend our money, right?

Okay, maybe not, but it’s still important. We work hard to scrape up a few bucks, and when we decide to toss that cheddar at some Heely’s or a stay at the Comfort Inn Dubuque, we want to know that those dollars are being well spent. And that’s why we go to the reviews.

That’s right, even though we here at Review Party Dot Com are into the weird and funny side of reviews, we know the value of a quality, fact-based review, one based on truth.

So when fake reviews enter the fray, we’ve got ourselves a problem.

Now, the FTC has stepped up as of late to defend we humble consumers, but now the big players are ready to bat for us. A coalition of Amazon, Glassdoor, Trustpilot, Expedia, Booking.com, and Tripadvisor has formed to combat fake reviews and those responsible for them.

In truth, the group’s stated purpose is:

…to protect access to “trustworthy consumer reviews” worldwide.

They plan to determine the best practices for hosting reviews, as well as develop “developing standards for what constitutes a fake review and sharing information about how bad actors operate.”

So what are they going to do?

Well, Amazon is filing suits against multiple review-selling groups, and recently stated that “two review brokers in China were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and three years of probation after using messaging apps to advertise and sell fake reviews to Amazon selling accounts.”

What else? They’re all gonna meet at conferences. All business like. And probably keep most of what they find out under wraps.