India's leading e-commerce companies on Wednesday supported a government proposal to make compliance with quality standards for consumer reviews mandatory, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs announced.
At a meeting held here, representatives of Amazon, Flipkart, Google, Meta and others supported the draft Quality Control Order to implement the IS19000:2022 standard on 'online consumer reviews', the ministry said. .
They agreed that the order is important to protect the interests of consumers from misleading reviews on shopping sites and apps, adding that the draft order will be submitted for public consultation.
“The discussion on the transition to IS 19000:2022 Quality Control Directive was welcomed by stakeholders, who said that the issue of fake reviews is important to protect the interests of consumers while shopping online and needs to be closely monitored. “This resulted in a general consensus among all stakeholders,” the ministry said in a statement.
Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare, who chaired the meeting, said the standard was important because online shoppers rely heavily on reviews for purchases that cannot be physically inspected.
“The presence of fake reviews online threatens the credibility of the platform and can lead to incorrect purchasing decisions,” the statement said.
This standard specifies specific responsibilities for review authors and administrators. Require review authors to be identified, prohibit editing of reviews to change the message, and prohibit preventing or deterring negative reviews.
The move comes after voluntary efforts failed to effectively curb fake reviews. The ministry also said that consumer complaints related to e-commerce surged from just 95,270 in 2018 to 4,44,034 in 2023, accounting for 43% of the total number of complaints registered.
A year ago, the government issued quality standards for e-tailers, banning the publication of paid reviews and requiring disclosure of such promotional content. However, the norm was voluntary in nature.
Consumer activist Pushpa Girimji, who attended the meeting, welcomed the move but said the “enforceability” of such standards was key to effectively checking the menace of fake reviews.
