The government has released guidelines to curb fake reviews on websites. These guidelines, which have been developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards, will come into effect from November 25.

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Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told CNBC-TV18 that the government would consider making these guidelines mandatory if self-regulation does not work and complaints continue.

“There is a mechanism to filter out fake and non-genuine reviews, paid reviews are admissible, but there has to be a disclosure. If there is a paid review, if there is a third party review, there has to be a disclosure. I think the key paradigm of this standard is disclosure,” Singh said.

He added that the industry was consulted. "I would also like to clarify that we are not starting from scratch. Many websites already have systems to handle fake reviews. But we want a level playing field and we want everybody to be at the same page when it comes to a mechanism to handle fake reviews,” he said.

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Talking about the feedback, Singh said that it industry wanted it to happen. "We have not discussed the mandatory and voluntary part because it helps the industry, it helps the menace of adverse review inducement by the competitors. So it helps the industry, it is a win-win proposition for both,” he saod.

On penal provisions, the consumer affairs secretary said that they are the same as under the Consumer Protection Act and Central Consumer Protection Authority rules. So if a review is fake, and it is established, then it falls under the category of unfair trading practices and the penalties will remain the same.

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First Published:Nov 21, 2022 6:57 PM IST