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• Amazon accused AppSally and Rebatest of fostering fake reviews
• Both companies have more than 900,000 members writing fake reviews
Amazon Inc. ( AMZN) sued two companies that posted “fake reviews” on the company’s online shopping portal.
The tech giant filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle accusing the two companies, AppSally and Rebatest, of fostering fake reviews on Amazon’s online marketplace.
An in-depth investigation into these review brokers revealed that both companies claim to have more than 900,000 members in total, willing to write fake reviews, Amazon said.
“Fake review brokers attempt to profit by deceiving unknowing consumers and creating an unfair competitive advantage that harms our selling partners,” said Dharmesh Mehta, VP of WW Customer Trust & Partner Support, Amazon.
Amazon’s third-party marketplace now accounts for more than half of Amazon’s e-commerce sales and has helped the company bring in record revenue.
The commercial success of this platform has been threatened by phony reviews as the marketplace has grown to include millions of third-party merchants.
‘Phony’ review sites
AppSally and Rebatest have been in operation since 2018, according to court filings. Amazon’s complaint accused AppSally of taking a fee from sellers, in some cases as little as $25, to receive “verified reviews.”
Rebatest also followed a similar procedure. In this case, users would place an order for a product on Amazon and leave a review.
Rebates allegedly refunded a users’ purchase through services like PayPal.
Inputs from CNBC