Include endorsers, influencers in policy to protect consumers from fake reviews: CAIT

Traders’ body CAIT on July 31 called upon the government to bring brand endorsers, social media influencers and bloggers under the proposed framework to protect online consumers from fake reviews of products and services.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also argued that rating of a product or service should be made a part of the policy framework for reviews.

The government is working on a standard operating procedure (SoP) to protect online consumers from fake reviews of products and services. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh in May held a virtual meeting with stakeholders to discuss the impact of fake and misleading reviews on online consumers and preparation of a roadmap to prevent such a situation.

The traders’ body urged the government for an early roll-out of a well-defined and robust policy to protect consumers from fake and deceptive reviews for products. It said such reviews influence the choice of consumers to a great extent thereby constitute an act to cheat the consumers for depriving them from getting right value for their spendings.

"In this context, the brand endorsers, social media influencers, bloggers on goods and services should be brought under the ambit of policy on fake and deceptive reviews," CAIT stated. CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal opined that in the current scenario, the trend of purchasing from e-commerce sites is increasing day by day and in the absence of having a physical touch and feel experience, reviews and ratings of goods and services assume significance in impacting the choice of consumers.