False advice: does the regulation guarantee transparency?

In November 2017, the DGCCRF published the results of an inspection carried out a year earlier on 60 online notice professionals. Out of 127 control actions, it issued 17 warnings and 6 procès verbaux. Overall, the rate of non-compliance reached 35%, meaning that more than a third of reviews were not authentic (considered to be fake reviews).

Yet it's these reviews that consumers very often rely on. In fact, they influence 77% of French people who consult them before making a purchase ( Baromètre des avis en ligne PagesJaunes et OpinionWay - 2018). Paradoxically, consumers are not fooled and know that many companies cheat. As confirmed by the DGCCRF...

A non-mandatory standard to combat false reviews

In 2013, the voluntary NF Z74-501 standard was presented as the first line of defence against fake reviews. One of the measures to guarantee their veracity was to link each review with proof of consumption (invoice, photo, receipt, etc.). The problem with this standard is that it is voluntary. No company is under any obligation to comply, starting with the biggest international platforms.

On January 1 this year, a decree resulting from the Law for a Digital Republic requires all e-commerce sites to specify several elements. They must mention the date of publication of notices and updates. They must also mention the date of the consumer experience and whether or not a control procedure exists. Finally, third-party certification must be mentioned. The decree also makes it compulsory to justify the reasons for rejecting a notice.

Adopt a platform integrating transparency measures

Will this decree change things? Nothing is less certain. To play the transparency card, there's nothing better than a Feedback Management tool. In addition to being linked to the company's information system (the opinion is linked to a purchasing experience), it can also be connected to platforms such as TripAdvisor. It can then provide information from satisfaction surveys, thus guaranteeing the authenticity of online reviews.

Even today, the standards and regulations in force make it impossible to prevent the publication of false reviews, let alone to identify them... For total transparency, it's best to rely on a Feedback Management platform. This will provide a framework for managing reviews, and ultimately ensure total transparency.