Centre to develop framework to check fake reviews on e-commerce sites

The government will develop a framework to keep a check on fake reviews on e-commerce websites, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry said, “The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), after studying the present mechanism being followed by e-commerce entities in India and best practices available globally, will develop these frameworks.”

The move came a day after consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh held a meeting with various stakeholders on the issue of fake reviews on e-commerce platforms on Friday. During the meeting, issues related to “paid reviews, unverifiable reviews and absence of disclosure in case of incentivised reviews which make it challenging for consumers to recognise genuine reviews” were discussed.