Earlier this year, Prose – a company that makes customized haircare products – brought an NAD challenge against Function – a competitor in the same business – over Function’s claims that it had over 110,000 5-star product reviews. We posted about that decision in March. This week, NAD announced a decision in a challenge
Reviews
NAD Addresses Math Problems in Counting Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
Function claimed that it had “over 110,000 5-star product reviews” for its hair care products, the majority of which come from its “shampoo and conditioner” category. A competitor filed an NAD challenge pointing out that the total number of 5-star reviews across all product categories was only 63,831. So how did Function get to 110,000?…
FTC Closing Letter Addresses Management of Consumer Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
Posted in Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Reviews
When the FTC decides not to pursue an investigation, it often issues a short closing letter to the company explaining why FTC staff decided not to recommend enforcement. The letters are just a few paragraphs long and don’t contain a lot of details, but if you read between the lines, you can often get some…
New Court Decision Address Manipulation of Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
Posted in Advertising Litigation, Reviews
Because consumer reviews are so important in today’s marketplace, many companies go to great lengths to increase their number of favorable reviews. Sometimes, they go too far. We’ve written about FTC and NAD cases in which companies incentivized reviews without proper disclosures and even about cases in which companies solicited fake reviews. (Click here,…
NAD Addresses When Companies may be Liable for Consumer Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
This is not another post about coronavirus claims, but we do need to start there.
Truvani makes a dietary supplement that was formerly called “Under the Weather.” The company’s webpage devoted to that supplement featured reviews from various users, including the following:
- Michael K. (Verified Buyer): “Very happy with the product, I feel BC so
…
FTC Seeks Public Comment on Endorsement Guides
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
This morning, the FTC announced that it is seeking public comment on whether to make changes to its Endorsement Guides as part of the agency’s systematic review of all current rules and guides. The Guides were first enacted in 1980, and updated in 2009 to more directly address social media. Among other things, the Guides…
New FTC Settlement Targets Fake Ratings and Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
Yesterday, the FTC announced that it had reached a settlement with LendEDU and three of its officers over misleading ratings and reviews.
LendEDU runs a website that compares student loans and other financial products. Although they advertised that the ratings are on the site are “completely objective and not influenced by compensation,” the FTC argued…
FTC Announces Settlement Over Fake Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
This week, the FTC announced a settlement with Sunday Riley Modern Skincare and its CEO, Sunday Riley, over allegations that company managers and employees posted fake reviews on Sephora.com.
The FTC alleged that company managers, including Ms. Riley herself, posted reviews of the company’s products on Sephora.com, and asked other employees do the same. When…
New NAD Decision Addresses Incentivized Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
NAD recently announced a decision involving Pyle Audio’s campaign to generate reviews for its NutriChef brand vacuum sealers. When consumers received their products, they would find a card promising them two rolls of vacuum sealing bags in exchange for leaving a review on Amazon.com. Near that promise, the card included the words “love this” and…
NAD Doesn’t Trust Trustpilot Reviews
By Gonzalo E. Mon on
If a review site ranks your product as the top in a category, can you advertise that you’re “number 1” in that category? Not necessarily. A recent NAD decision explains why.
A competitor challenged TaxSlayer’s claim that it was “#1 Rated in the Tax Prep Software Category on Trustpilot.” NAD started its decision with a…