The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has authorized a final order in opposition to Sitejabber, the supplier of a synthetic intelligence (AI)-enabled shopper overview platform, prohibiting the corporate from making or facilitating misrepresentations about rankings and evaluations.
The FTC charged in a November 2024 complaint that Sitejabber collected shopper rankings and evaluations for its on-line enterprise shoppers on the time of buy, earlier than the shoppers skilled the services or products; used these rankings and evaluations to inflate its shoppers’ common rankings and overview counts; and offered its shoppers with the means to misrepresent that rankings and evaluations had been from clients who had used their merchandise, the company stated in a Friday (Jan. 3) press release.
When asserting the enforcement motion in a Nov. 6 press launch, Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Client Safety, stated: “Platforms don’t have free rein to mislead individuals concerning the consumer reviews proven for firms and their merchandise.”
The Friday press launch asserting the approval of a ultimate order stated: “The ultimate order settling the Fee’s criticism prohibits Sitejabber from making, or helping anybody else in making, misrepresentations about any rankings, common rankings, or evaluations it collects, moderates or shows.”
Sitejabber didn’t instantly reply to PYMNTS’ request for remark.
In a response to the FTC’s allegations posted on its web site on Nov. 7, Sitejabber stated that the FTC’s allegations relate to the corporate’s show of point-of-sale evaluations previous to updates Sitejabber made in early 2024.
Sitejabber stated that point-of-sale evaluations seize genuine suggestions about clients’ buying experiences; that the FTC introduced proposed new guidelines and up to date guides in June 2023 that implied that point-of-sale evaluations are deceptive; and that Sitejabber started separating and extra clearly labeling point-of-sale evaluations in late 2023 when it turned conscious of the FTC’s modifications.
“Whereas we disagree with the implied intent and affect of the FTC’s allegations, now we have all the time supported elevated transparency and regulation round evaluations,” Sitejabber wrote in its Nov. 7 response. “It was a troublesome choice, however we finally selected to settle, as many of the FTC’s considerations had already been addressed by our earlier modifications, and the settlement didn’t contain any additional vital alterations to our practices or any civil penalties.”
