Amazon sued two companies on Tuesday for allegedly brokering fraudulent reviews.
The complaints accuse AppSally and Rebatest of promoting fraudulent reviews on Amazon’s online marketplace. For free products or cash, the firms allegedly connected third-party merchants with consumers who would submit positive reviews.
This is Amazon’s latest attempt to combat bogus reviews on its vast third-party marketplace. The marketplace now accounts for more than half of e-commerce sales, boosting revenue. Amazon has struggled with phoney reviews as the marketplace has evolved to include millions of third-party retailers.
“Two large phony-review brokers” are accused of “helping mislead buyers by having their members try to publish bogus reviews in stores” like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Etsy. AppSally and Rebatest claim to have over 900,000 people “willing to post phoney reviews.”
Rebatest remained silent. AppSally declined to comment.
Per court documents, AppSally and Rebatest started in 2018. A fee of up to $25 was charged by AppSally for “verified reviews,” according to the complaint.
