Spanish watchdog clears Amazon of hosting fake reviews

Spain’s antitrust watchdog cleared Amazon, Booking Holdings and Tripadvisor on Wednesday of participating in or facilitating fake reviews on their websites.

CNMC, as the watchdog is known, has been looking into a complaint lodged by a local association defending consumers.

“CNMC found no indication that the platforms have participated in or facilitated the publication of these false opinions,” it said in a statement. The companies invested in detecting fake reviews and collaborated with ongoing investigations, it said.

The watchdog has, however, detected possible signs of a violation of consumer protection regulations, and so sent the complaint to the consumer rights authority.

No further details were given. The complaint referred to possible indications that sellers and intermediaries contact users to publish false reviews in exchange for money or giving them products, which falls within consumer protection regulations.

An Amazon spokesperson said his company acts against fake reviews on its websites.

Reuters