Amazon Lawsuit Targets Facebook Groups Over Fake Reviews

 

Justice Department opens civil probe into Amazon's workplace safety practices

Investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Monday morning went to warehouses around New York City, Chicago and Orlando to conduct worker safety inspections on behalf of the US attorney's office, according to the spokesperson.

"The civil division of the Southern District of New York is investigating potential worker safety hazards at Amazon (AMZN) warehouses across the country, as well as possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others," said Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the US attorney's office there. He said one area under investigation is Amazon's required pace of work for warehouse employees.

Prosecutors asked members of the public and current and former Amazon employees to contact them about any safety issues, including failures to report injuries or reports of individuals who were injured but did not receive adequate care by the on-site first aid centers.

"We'll of course cooperate with OSHA in their investigation, and we believe it will ultimately show that these concerns are unfounded," said Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel.21, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Amazon for failing to protect workers during the pandemic. That case was dismissed in May of this year. A House committee announced in April it is investigating how Amazon treats its workers, following the death of six employees in December when the distribution center they were working in was struck by a tornado. Amazon said at that time that it would respond to that House investigation in due course and remained focused on "supporting our employees and partners, the families who lost loved ones, the surrounding community, and all those affected by the tornadoes." Complaints about worker safety at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, was also a major issue in the successful campaign by a union to win a milestone vote there earlier this year.

Amazon Sues Facebook Group Admins Over Massive Fake Reviews Plot

Fake reviews were allegedly left on Amazon sites in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Image: Denis Charlet (Getty Images)

Amazon has filed lawsuits against the administrators of over 10,000 Facebook groups that are allegedly part of a network to recruit individuals to leave fake reviews for products on Amazon in exchange for money or free products.

Amazon, of course, is the marketplace where you can have unfettered access to almost any product you need. Likewise, Amazon’s trusted review system is usually an honest way to get a look at the quality of products—well, sort of. Today, Amazon revealed in a press release that it filed a lawsuit against the administrators of over 10,000 Facebook groups. These groups are reportedly part of a coordinated effort to recruit individuals to leave fake reviews for different products on Amazon stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Sp

ain, and Japan

“Our teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they’re ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media,” said Dharmesh Mehta in the press release. Mehta is Amazon’s Vice President of Selling Partner Services. “Proactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable.”

Amazon says that one group in particular had 43,000 members until it was taken down by Meta earlier this year. The group was vaguely called “Amazon Product Review,” according to the company, and its administrators were able to obfuscate their activity from Facebook’s content filters by omitting certain letters from problematic words. The company said that users who posted fake reviews would receive money or products in return, and explained to Gizmodo in an email that this reward scheme is not through Amazon itself, but is set up by the administrators of the groups or via third-party websites.

Amazon is quite good at squashing organized movements. News broke in April that the company considered spending $20,000 per week on consultants to incentivize warehouse workers to abandon unionization efforts at aa Staten Island warehouse.

Amazon Lawsuit Targets Facebook Groups Over Fake Reviews

In its latest effort to crack down on fake reviews, Amazon has taken legal action against the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups, the company said in a press release Tuesday. The e-commerce giant alleges that the Facebook group administrators named in the lawsuit recruited and incentivized people to write misleading reviews on Amazon stores in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan in exchange for money or free products. 

"Our teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they're ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media," Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon's vice president of Selling Partner Services, said in the release. "Proactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable."

Facebook parent company Meta earlier this year took down a group with over 43,000 members, and has taken down thousands more since 2020, according to Amazon.

"Groups that solicit or encourage fake reviews violate our policies and are removed," Facebook spokesperson Dani Lever said in an emailed statement to CNET. "We are working with Amazon on this matter and will continue to partner across the industry to address spam and fake reviews."

Amazon has been fighting fake reviews for years. The company in 2015 filed a lawsuit against four different sites and in 2016 took legal action against five additional sites. Earlier this year

Amazon filed lawsuits against review brokers AppSally and Rebatest, alleging that both companies have over 900,000 members combined who are willing to write fake reviews. In May, Amazon sued Hong Kong-based Extreme Rebate for allegedly facilitating payments of $2.50 per five-star review.

"These bad actors harm Amazon customers by deceiving them with reviews that are dishonest and inauthentic," Amazon's latest lawsuit said. "Bad actors also harm small and medium-size businesses selling in Amazon's stores by creating an unfair playing field that makes it more difficult for honest sellers to compete on the issues that matter to consumers, such as quality, features, and price."