Come Nov 25, India to be first country in world to have law on fake reviews on websites

New Delhi, Nov 22: All e-commerce players, travel and ticketing portals and online food delivery platforms starting November 25 will have to voluntarily disclose paid and sponsored reviews about the products and services offered on their respective portals.

These entities cannot publish reviews that have been purchased or written by people employed for this purpose the government's newly framed standard on online reviews says.

On Monday the government unvelied the new standard on 'Online Consumer Reviews' and ratings made by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in a bid to curb the menace of fake and deceptive reviews of products and services. This standard will be applicable to independent third-party entities that posts such reviews on any online platform.

The Centre has cautioned that the failure to comply with the BIS standard will amount to unfair trade practice and action would be taken against such entities as per the Consumer Protection Act.

"We don't want to bulldoze the industry. We want to take the standard route. We will first see voluntary compliance and then, if the menace continues to grow, we may make it mandatory in the future. The government always has that option," Union Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said.

He also added that representatives of all big players, including technology majors like Google and Meta were part of the committee that came up with the fine standard. They are also confident of high compliance as fake reviews hurt the industry, he added.

India will be the first country in the world to have such a norm for Online Consumer Reviews, Singh said. He also said that the BIS will come up with a conformity assessment scheme in the next 15 days The website will display the certification from the BIS for consumer information.

"The focus of the new standard is adequate disclosure. The online platforms have to specify the period when the reviews were collected so that consumers are not misled. There are websites in countries like Turkey and Moldova where there is a business of fake reviews. So these companies pay money and get reviews. If this is happening, that cannot take place," he further added.

The online reviews have a great influence in three sectors-restaurant and eateries, tour and travel and consumer durables. The new standard defines the reviews as solicited and unsolicited. Those handling the review in any organisation shall be called the administrator and the new standard gives an option for the reviewer to withdraw their reviews too.