To make it easier for customers to purchase products online, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has proposed not including paid reviews in the overall rating of a good or service. A separate ranking is proposed to account for reviews that are gathered with rewards.
The BIS believes that by separating the ratings in this way, it will be easier for consumers to know whether the review they are reading of a product or service is entirely independent or based on the reviewers getting “‘rewards”.
In a draft revising the Standards on Online Consumer Reviews: Principles and Requirements for Their Collection, Moderation and Publication, the BIS has suggested that the administrators of online sites should not account ratings collected with rewards when calculating the overall rating of a product or service. Instead, these reviews should have a separate rating and have a different mark to make it clear to consumers that they are different from other reviews.
The move will have a far reaching impact in the online space as reviews form a key element in a consumer’s decision to buy and reviews straddle online sites in e-commerce, food delivery, lifestyle, clothing, and groceries, and a multitude of services.
Stakeholders have been asked to give their comments on the draft by November 10.
The draft gives examples of what constitutes a “reward”. It could be a new product tester programme that lends a product to consumers to use for a period of time in return for a review. A reward can take the form of cash or products or prizes in a competition such as a lottery style draw.
Reviews collected by rewards should be given a separate overall rating to ensure transparency. The draft also lays down rules specifying that, in case of reviews collected through rewards, the beneficiaries have to be selected through a nondiscriminatory and unbiased procedure. Further, the review will not depend on the content of the review submitted (it could be positive or negative). Finally, the review administrator will have to specify the nature of the opportunity to receive an award and the terms and conditions.
The BIS has also devised a method to verify whether the unsolicited consumer reviewer is a ‘real person’ and to confirm if his or her contact details are genuine. Reviewers can be identified by sending an e-mail asking them to confirm their registration by clicking on the mail.
The AI on the e-commerce platforms reportedly manipulates the reviews and pushes the positive ones to the top giving an advantage over the product. Bad reviews are removed or down so that the average consumer won't read them using criteria like top reviews and most relevant, the Consumer Organisation says.
In May, the problem of fake reviews of products and services on the Internet was discussed at a meeting of representatives from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, e-commerce companies and consumer rights groups.
The Indian government in June said it planned to develop a framework to curb fake reviews of products on e-commerce websites after studying the “best practices available globally”.
Sources: Outlook India, Business Standard
