Tom Yun
CTVNews.ca writer
Canada's Competition Bureau is warning businesses not use reviews posted by their employees without proper disclosure, or they could be subject to penalties under the Competition Act.
In a media release on Thursday, the Bureau said employees who post online reviews are required to disclose any relationship with the business, product or service that they're reviewing, or their competitors, even if the review is their honest opinion.
The Bureau is calling on businesses to train employees to ensure that business connections are disclosed when posting reviews about their company or its competitors and implement compliance programs to make sure these rules are being followed.
In cases where it isn't possible to make a disclosure, such as assigning a star rating to a product or business, the Bureau says employees should not make the review.
"When employees post reviews without disclosing their relationship with the business, consumers are misled. We will not hesitate to vigorously pursue enforcement action against problematic reviews," Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell said in the news release.
Last month, the Competition Bureau issued a hefty fine to Amp Me Inc., a Montreal-based company that developed an app that synchronizes multiple devices to amplify the sound of music. The Bureau said its investigation found that the company had purchased positive reviews from third parties between 2019 and 2022 and manipulated their app's ranking and rating on the iPhone App Store.
The Bureau had imposed a penalty of $1.5 million, but due to the company's inability to pay, Amp Me was only required to pay $310,000 in addition to $40,000 to cover the costs of the investigation.
In 2021, the Competition Bureau issued fines of $5 million for the online travel agency FlightHub Group Inc. and $400,000 for two of FlightHub's directors after finding that the company posted fake positive customer reviews, in addition to charging hidden fees.
In its guidelines on how to spot fake reviews released in March 2022, the Bureau says consumers should be weary of overly positive or overly negative reviews, businesses with a sudden spike in reviews, businesses with nothing but 5-star ratings, reviews from newly-created user profiles, and multiple reviewers using similar phrasing.
Instead, consumers should also read the 2- to 4-star reviews, look at reviews over a long period of time, and consult multiple sources when shopping around, the Bureau recommends.
Consumers who believe they have come across fake reviews can file a complaint with Competition Bureau online.