United States of America: Issued FTC notice proposing Rule on the Use of Reviews and Endorsements

On 20 October 2022, the Federal Trade Commission announced its intention to adopt a new trade regulation on the Use of Reviews and Endorsements. The regulation would apply to advertising services providers and e-commerce platforms. The rule aims to limit the fake reviews displayed on the platforms and ensure that providers comply with their terms of service regarding the reviews they post. The targeted practices include fake reviews, review reuse fraud, paid reviews, insider reviews, reviews suppression, fake reviews websites, and other practices that can impact a company's perceived influence, such as buying followers. In particular, the rule would introduce transparency requirements to ensure that platforms don't manipulate or suppress negative reviews. In case of non-compliance, platforms would face civil penalties. The public consultation on the proposed rule will open after the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) is published in the Federal Register.