Amazon commits to stepping up fake-review fight after UK watchdog's investigation
The Competition and Markets Authority said it secured the 'undertakings' from Amazon, after getting a similar agreement earlier this year from Google to clamp down on rogue reviews plaguing the internet.
The company promised to strengthen its existing systems for fighting fake reviews. It will also tackle catalog abuse, which involves sellers boosting star ratings for a product by hijacking good reviews from a completely different one.
As an example, a shopper might come across a pair of headphones with a five-star rating. But, after looking closer, most of the reviews are for a mobile phone charger, the watchdog said.
As part of its commitments, Amazon has agreed to sanction anyone caught using these tactics. Businesses could be banned from selling on the Amazon website and users posting fake reviews could be banned from posting them, the CMA said.
The watchdog's chief executive, Sarah Cardell, said that so many people shop on Amazon and 'star ratings and reviews have a huge impact on their choices.'
Amazon's pledges 'mean people can make decisions with greater confidence – knowing that those who seek to pull the wool over their eyes will be swiftly dealt with.'
The pledges apply to Amazon's U.K. website. The company said in a statement that it has zero tolerance for fake reviews and that the measures build on Amazon's existing efforts to tackle them.
'We invest significant resources to proactively stop fake reviews ever appearing on our store, including on expert human investigators and machine learning models that analyse thousands of data points to detect risk,' the company said.
The CMA opened its investigations into Amazon and Google in 2021 to examine whether the two companies broke U.K. consumer law by failing to protect shoppers. It began looking into phony reviews on some big websites amid the boom in online shopping fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US tech titan earnings rise on AI as economy roils
Tech giants Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft this week eclipsed earnings expectations, cashing in on artificial intelligence (AI) while navigating economic waters roiled by US tariffs. "Massive results seen by Microsoft and Meta further validate the use cases and unprecedented spending trajectory for the AI Revolution on both the enterprise and consumer fronts," Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives said in a note to investors. "We have barely scratched the surface of this 4th Industrial Revolution now playing out around the world led by the Big Tech stalwarts such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Palantir, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon," Ives added. Amazon reported a 35 percent jump in quarterly profits as the e-commerce giant said major investments in AI technology are paying off. "Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out," said Chief Executive Andy Jassy, pointing to the company's expanded Alexa+ service and new AI shopping agents. But the Seattle-based company's profit outlook for the current quarter came in lower than hoped for, with investors worried that the cost of AI was weighing on the bottom line. This was despite a stellar second quarter that exceeded analyst expectations, much like it did for its AI-focused rivals Google, Microsoft and Meta, which posted bumper results for the period. Amazon's net sales climbed 13 percent, signaling that the company was so far surviving impacts of the high-tariff trade policy under US President Donald Trump. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's world-leading cloud computing division, led the charge with sales jumping 17.5 percent to $30.9 billion. Its strong performance reflects surging demand for cloud infrastructure to power AI applications, a trend that has benefited major cloud providers as companies race to adopt generative AI technologies. - $4 trillion club - Shares of Microsoft spiked Thursday following blowout quarterly results, lifting the tech giant into the previously unprecedented $4 trillion club along with Nvidia, another AI standout. The landmark valuation is the latest sign of growing bullishness about an AI investment boom that market watchers believe is still in the early stages -- even as companies like Microsoft plan $100 billion or more in annual capital spending to add new capacity. "Cloud and AI is the driving force of business transformation across every industry and sector," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. At the heart of the results was a stunning surge in Azure, the company's cloud computing platform, which is getting "supercharged" with AI, said Angelo Zino, technology analyst at CFRA Research. Zino attributed "just about all of" Microsoft's recent climb in valuation to AI. - Superintelligence? - Meta reported robust second-quarter financial results Wednesday, with revenue jumping 22 percent year-over-year as the social media giant continues investing heavily in artificial intelligence. "We've had a strong quarter both in terms of our business and community," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "I'm excited to build personal superintelligence for everyone in the world." Zuckerberg has embarked on a major AI spending spree, poaching top researchers with expensive pay packages from rivals like OpenAI and Apple as he builds a team to pursue what he calls AI superintelligence. Hours before the earnings report, Zuckerberg insisted that the attainment of superintelligence -- technology that would theoretically be more powerful than the human brain -- is now "in sight." Meanwhile Apple, which is seen as lagging in the AI race, beat expectations with earnings driven by strong iPhone sales despite US tariffs costing the company $800 million in the recently-ended quarter. Apple expects Trump's tariffs to cost the iPhone maker $1.1 billion in the current quarter. "The results show that Apple's iPhone strategy is working to offset the impact of looming challenges with AI development timelines, tariff pressures, and Google's antitrust issues," said Emarketer tech analyst Jacob Bourne. Apple chief executive Tim Cook said on an earnings call that taking the most advanced technologies and making them easy to use is "at the heart of our AI strategy." Cook said Apple has been rolling out Apple Intelligence AI features and is "making good progress on a more personalized Siri." gc/aks Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Civil service internships to be restricted to working class
The government will tighten eligibility criteria for Whitehall internships as part of a broader push to make the civil service more representative of the working class. According to the BBC, the main internship scheme will now be limited to students from 'lower socio-economic backgrounds'. Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the minister responsible for civil service reform, said that Whitehall needed to reflect the broader community. 'We need to get more working-class young people into the Civil Service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country,' he told the BBC. 'Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve.' The changes are expected to take effect from summer 2026 and will give young people experience writing briefings, planning events, conducting policy research and shadowing civil servants, according to the broadcaster. The existing work summer placement programme, which lasts up to eight weeks and is paid, is open to undergraduates in the final two years of their degree. The Duchy of Lancaster has been contacted for comment. The move comes after the Government announced plans to move thousands more civil servants out of London as part of plans to 'radically reform the state'. In May, the Government confirmed it would cut the number of civil servants working in London by 12,000 and shift jobs to a series of new regional 'campuses' across the country. Mr McFadden said at the time that the Government would be relocating a 'substantial number of roles'. 'The aim is to reduce the London count by about 12,000. That will save us £94 million in lease costs because the properties in London are very expensive. 'And we will move thousands – it's difficult to put a precise number – thousands of those jobs to new themed campuses around the country,' he told Times Radio. The changes will also see 11 Government office buildings in London close, including one of its largest Westminster sites, in a move expected to save £94 million a year by 2032. The move will see two new major 'campuses' created, one in Manchester focused on digital innovation and AI and another in Aberdeen on energy. Manchester is already home to major offices of the science and culture departments, while Aberdeen houses the new Great British Energy headquarters. Other roles will be created in Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Darlington, Newcastle and Tyneside, Sheffield, Bristol, Edinburgh, Belfast and York, with the changes expected to bring £729 million to the local economy by 2030.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Copper Set for Weekly Decline After Trump's Surprise Tariff Move
Copper was on track for a weekly fall, as President Donald Trump's shock decision not to place tariffs on refined products had traders rushing to book up London Metal Exchange storage space to house the metal. Trump imposed 50% tariffs on some copper imports starting Friday but exempted refined products, triggering a record plunge for US prices after traders had rushed to get the metal to America before the levies kicked in. New York futures' massive premium over London evaporated and at stages swung to a discount on Thursday.
