It is sad we have to have an actual rule, but bad actors and all.
Not that this will stop paid reviews, not at all. At least when it happens there is a rule prohibiting it making it somewhat enforceable.
“Specifically, the rule bans reviews and testimonials attributed to people who don’t exist or are generated by artificial intelligence, people who don’t have experience with the business or product/services, or misrepresent their experience.”
I’ve never understood why Amazon(or any other venues) even allows a review to be submitted on a product that you have never purchased. Like someone leaving a review on my Handmade product that is not available anywhere else.
I kinda understand why, but still think it’s stupid. They wanted everyone who purchased a product, no matter from where, to review it on Amazon so Amazon would become the place people went to read reviews. At this point it needs to end.
Yeah that should not be allowed at all
Do you mean to tell me that 63% of all reviews on Amazon vanished today? 
I just shared the story on Facebook for my massive following of family and friends. I used 2/3 for my estimate.
I just wonder if some gutsy whistleblower will step forward and create havoc for Amazon as a result of this – “Businesses that knowingly buy fake reviews, procure them from company insiders or disseminate fake reviews will be penalized.”
Wishful thinking I know, but one can hope…
Similar Amazon Notifications have been posted to the various iterations of the ASF (and in other discussion venues) ever since the 2Oct2016 launch of the Incentivized Review Policy Revision Initiative - but I wouldn’t get too worked up about receiving one of these should we ever do…not least because I find - as do many of us, it seems - Amazon rather ineffectual in its efforts to put Bad Actors aside, should its bean-counters determine that doing so presents the possibility of shutting off cash flow to its coffers.
We get at least one of those emails a week. Have been getting them since Nov of 2023.
There’s a lot of Bull ■■■■going on in our category. Perhaps the fiercest category to compete in on Amazon.
Nail, meet hammer.
So all products from certain sellers should then have 0 reviews right
LOL ROFL
0 positive reviews that is… haha
It’s only really enforceable if there are penalties attached. I didn’t notice any penalties when reading the article.
For penalties in general, they are only a deterrent if they are extremely high and easy to enforce. Unlike modern America’s current legal environment.
Honestly, I can see this eventually ending unverified reviews on Amazon (which they should get rid of anyways). I get the impression Amazon would rather end unverified reviews versus inadvertently posting reviews from people who didn’t use or buy the product and subject themselves to liability (and make no mistake…it’s a matter of when, not if, a person sues Amazon over this now that the rule has been finalized). Amazon has no way of verifying people actually used the item unless it was purchased on their site.
I see them taking the huge hammer approach like they do with authenticity…meaning you may actually be selling an authentic item, but if you don’t have the proof they require, they still consider it inauthentic.
The unverified purchase reviews had the right idea in the past when Amazon was first starting, but now that they’re the biggest e-commerce website, there’s literally nobody who would buy something off Amazon and then think they should leave an honest review on Amazon.
The legitimate unverified review rate is around 0%. They should absolutely end this practice and go a step further and strike all unverified reviews from the site.
Oh, there are still some who disagree with your logical take, as exemplified by this 103023 post in the the NSFE’s “main” discussion re: the FTC’s Final Rule (emphasis mine):
I’ve normally agreed with that poster’s take on this or that aspect of Selling on Amazon/Sailing The River, but not this time…
I have little use for product reviews.
I am sure that few of you are surprised that my opinions tend to be different from those of most other people.
For amusement, I have read reviews of products I bought, after I received and used them. The reviewers were more often wrong that right when they bad mouthed a product.
Back when we sold computers, we had a standard response to many support calls - NTFM. Internet reviewers cannot take the time to read or are illiterate 60% of the time.
The FTC, should it decide to enforce this ban will probably need to triple its staff, and will probably miss all of the dishonest reviewers.
I would say the number of good honest REVIEWERS outweigh the # of bad ones. The issue is the bad ones can post millions of fake reviews for very little cost (posing as numerous fake people). At least a verified purchase review forces them to actually buy the product which adds a significant cost if you’re posting tons and tons of fake reviews.
The issue of fake reviews is NEVER going to go away. That’s just a fact of life. But you can at least up the costs of doing so.
I had a typo in my last post. The response was RTFM. Read the … manual.