After nearly two years of deliberations and messaging around online reviews, the FTC has finally announced a new rule that explicitly bans fake reviews and deceptive testimonials as part of a broader effort by the FTC to protect consumers from misleading business practices and to ensure that online reviews are genuine and trustworthy.

‍

What you need to know about the rule

‍

1. Prohibition on Fake Reviews: the rule bans businesses from posting, soliciting, or buying fake reviews or testimonials about their products or services. This includes any reviews written by individuals who have never used the product or service, were paid to write a review without proper disclosure, fake AI-generated reviews, and any reviews written by an employee or related party of the business.
   ‍
2. Buying Positive or Negative Reviews: businesses cannot provide compensation or other incentives connected with a consumer writing a consumer review that expresses a particular sentiment, either positive or negative.
   ‍
3. Review Suppression: businesses cannot misrepresent that the reviews on a review portion of its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted when reviews have been suppressed based upon their ratings or negative sentiment. 

‍

Our take

‍

We think this rule is a much-needed intervention to clean up the reviews space in home services and other corners of the Internet. It aligns well with our mission of helping our customers build authentic reputations in their target neighborhoods and will help restore consumer trust in online reviews.

‍

Fake reviews don’t just impact homeowners trying to find a service business that they trust. They also have an adverse impact on the majority of home services businesses that have been forced to compete with the bad actors that look to game the system at every turn. I’ve had numerous conversations with our customers about the challenges of dealing with competitors with skyrocketing review counts that are clearly coming from illegitimate channels. Reining in fake reviews will level the playing field and allow the best businesses to win based on their authentic online reputations. 

‍

‍

RealWork product updates

‍

The FTC rule goes into effect on October 13th. We are currently conducting a review of our product to ensure full compliance with all of the guidelines. We will send a separate communication with details on any of these related product updates in advance of the effective date.

‍

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can generate and grow your business with authentic customer reviews, you can book some time to talk with our sales team here.