Can You Still Trust Amazon Reviews? The CMA Doesn’t Think So - Newsletter

Introduction:

The Trust Problem Behind 5-Star Ratings :

We’re all familiar with checking online reviews before making a purchase. They’ve become the go-to tool for quick decisions, especially during big sales like Black Friday, when deals are everywhere. But there’s a growing question: are these reviews real?

In today’s digital marketplace, fake reviews are increasingly sophisticated. They look genuine, sound convincing, and lead shoppers to buy products that don’t always live up to expectations.

You’re shopping online, maybe for new headphones. One listing has hundreds of glowing reviews and a perfect 5-star rating. You hit “buy.” But when it arrives, the quality disappoints. Suddenly, those “verified buyer” reviews don’t seem so trustworthy.

Reviews now carry more weight than ever. They shape what we buy, who we buy from, and how much we’re willing to spend. In fact, many of us trust them as much as personal recommendations. But fake reviews distort that trust, and that’s why the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stepped in.

In 2025, the CMA took action against Amazon, challenging the platform to clean up its review system. Their message? Platforms must protect users from manipulation because fake reviews don’t just mislead. They undermine the integrity of online commerce.

Why Reviews Matter and How They Reshape Shoppers Behaviour:

Customer reviews now play an active role in shaping shopping choices, influencing visibility, pricing, and purchase decisions across ecommerce platforms. According to a UK government report, 90% of consumers use online reviews when making purchase decisions. Another study found that 70% of shoppers are more likely to buy a product with positive reviews. In 2023 alone, reviews influenced £217 billion in UK online retail sales.

Reviews impact more than buying decisions. They affect search rankings, shape product visibility, and can even influence pricing strategies. For many, reviews act as personal recommendations, guiding choices when we can’t try products ourselves.

But what happens when these reviews are fake?

Fake reviews mislead shoppers and undermine trust. For consumers, this often leads to poor experiences or financial loss. For businesses, the risks go beyond reputation: fake feedback can distort sentiment analysis, affect customer experience metrics, and reduce the quality of data-driven decisions and now, regulators across Europe and the U.S. are stepping in.

Companies that ignore the problem increasingly face not just brand damage but legal consequences.Simply put, fake reviews don’t just harm individuals, they compromise platforms, brands, and the overall credibility of digital commerce.

Inside the Amazon Review Problem:

On June 6, 2025, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced a major enforcement action, securing binding commitments from Amazon to address fake reviews and catalogue abuse across its platform.

This followed a detailed investigation into how Amazon managed user-generated content, especially product reviews. The CMA uncovered multiple practices that misled consumers:

Fake testimonials were being used to inflate product ratings.
Catalogue abuse allowed sellers to transfer positive reviews from one product to another, falsely boosting credibility.
Review manipulation services, external brokers who sold fake reviews were operating with little pushback.
Transparency issues around how reviews were gathered and verified created more confusion than clarity.

These practices contributed to a distorted marketplace where consumers believed they were purchasing highly rated products, only to be disappointed when those products failed to meet expectations.

This wasn’t an isolated issue. The CMA linked fake and misleading reviews to annual consumer harm valued between £50 million and £312 million. These deceptive practices were found to undermine consumer confidence and disadvantage honest sellers who play by the rules.

To address this, Amazon agreed to implement a series of systemic changes:

Enhance its review detection systems, combining AI and human moderation.
Proactively monitor and remove fake reviews and suspicious review patterns.
Permanently ban sellers and brokers who engage in review manipulation.
Provide clearer information to users about how reviews are collected and verified.

These changes aim not only to clean up Amazon’s marketplace but also to set a new bar for accountability in ecommerce. The CMA’s action is seen as a milestone in consumer protection and digital fairness.

What This Means for Other Platforms and Sellers:

This action by the CMA isn’t isolated, it sets an important example.With new enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), other platforms like Google, TikTok, and Trustpilot may soon face similar scrutiny.

For sellers, the message is clear: the era of "buying credibility" through fake reviews is coming to an end. Regulators are watching, and trust can’t be manufactured.

Under the new rules, submitting, publishing, or facilitating fake or undisclosed incentivised reviews is now explicitly illegal. Practices like cherry-picking positive feedback, porting ratings from one product to another, or failing to disclose incentives can all lead to legal action.

And the consequences are serious: CMA can now fine companies up to £300,000 or 10% of their global turnover, order redress for harmed consumers, and demand systemic changes ,without needing to go through the courts and has already begun reviewing other platforms following its April 2025 guidance on fake reviews. This sector-wide sweep will determine who’s compliant, and who may be next in line for enforcement.

Designing for Truth: FairPatterns Role in Review Integrity

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End-to-end, practical solution for digital compliance - covering detection, fixing, and prevention.

Final Thought: The Hidden Price of Stars

A five-star rating should signal trust, not trickery. But when fake reviews flood the system, everyone pays:consumers get burned, honest sellers lose ground, and platforms face legal risk and reputational damage and that’s the cost of ignoring integrity.

Connect with us to design for trust, and keep your reviews real.

https://www.fairpatterns.com/contact-us

💫 Regain your freedom online.