Online company fined $4.2M for blocking negative product reviews
Product reviews must be honest and truthful
#WarningLetterWednesday
Online company fined $4.2 million for blocking negative product reviews.
The FTC alleges the company blocked product reviews with less than four stars. This is considered deceptive marketing and clearly warns companies that product reviews should be accurate.
Here is what we can learn.
🔷Best practices for soliciting and posting reviews.
From FTC letter ➡️Examples may include asking for reviews only from those likely to leave positive ones, preventing or discouraging submission of negative reviews, subjecting negative reviews to greater scrutiny, refusing to publish negative reviews, or otherwise not treating positive and negative reviews equally.
🔷Here are some FTC rules for possible exceptions to the "post all" rule.
From FTC press release➡️(the company) must post on its website all customer reviews of products currently being sold—with the exception of reviews that contain obscene, sexually explicit, racist, or unlawful content and reviews that are unrelated to the product or customer services like shipping or returns.
Here is a video about product reviews.
Read the FTC press release.
This is a different Warning Letter Wednesday because it is an FTC action (not FDA), and it involves a fine (not a warning letter) and doesn't include a supplement company. This is a good reminder that we can learn from other agency actions such as this one.
👉Join my Warning Letter Wednesday group here.
Disclaimer: The educational information provided here is for informational purposes only. Contact an attorney for specific legal advice. Rule #1 in compliance is to ensure marketing is truthful and not misleading.