• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 6, 2024

The review platform Sitejabber allegedly boosted its e-commerce clients' ratings by soliciting -- and then posting -- reviews from people who had made online purchases but hadn't yet received their merchandise or used the services they bought, the Federal Trade Commission alleged Tuesday.

Sitejabber, which markets its review platform to more than 130,000 businesses, sent automated pop-up surveys to its clients' consumers immediately after they purchased something; those surveys asked people to rate their shopping experience with one-to-five stars, and to “type a quick message” about the experience, the FTC alleged in a complaint unveiled Wednesday.

Sitejabber then posted those reviews on its clients' Sitejabber.com profile pages, and also in Google search ads, but failed to disclose that the reviews were written by people who hadn't yet received the products, according to the FTC.

The agency added that Sidejabber's alleged presentation of the reviews could “mislead consumers into believing that a business's high review count and high rating means thousands of customers have had positive experiences with the business's products or services, when in fact the ratings and reviews displayed primarily reflected only customers' experiences shopping on the business's website.”

Sitejabber agreed to settle the complaint by vowing to refrain from misrepresenting ratings and reviews, and from enabling others to present feedback collected at the point-of-sale as write-ups from people who had received products.

The new settlement comes around six weeks after the artificial intelligence company Rytr, which generates testimonials, agreed to resolve charges that it enabled people to write phony reviews. That settlement prohibits Rytr from advertising or selling any review or testimonial generation service.