BIS norms to curb fake reviews to increase costs for online sellers: Report

The recent guidelines by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to curb the menace of fake online reviews could increase costs for e-commerce platforms however small they may be, according to a report in The Economic Times.
The report, citing experts, said e-commerce platforms will have to invest in pulling resources to adhere to the new guidelines and this may result in higher costs for even small players.

According to the guidelines, published on November 23, the companies will have to ensure that the ratings and reviews of their products are genuine. While these guidelines are currently voluntary for internet and e-commerce firms, they are applicable to any organisation that publishes consumer reviews online.
"The new BIS standards introduce a mechanism of filtering of reviews by review administrators. This would require significant investments from platforms of time, money and resources, and could be challenging for smaller players to implement," Tanu Banerjee, partner, Khaitan & Co, told ET.
These guidelines are expected to be reviewed after six months. Experts say one will have to wait to see how implementing these guidelines, if made mandatory, will pan out and how the government responds to the evolving situation.

The guidelines say e-commerce platforms will have to conduct checks before the reviews of products are published. The reviews would undergo automatic as well as manual moderation before being published.

The guidelines were framed by the Department of Consumer Affairs after it received a slew of complaints about fake reviews of products being posted by several e-commerce companies on social media and on web portals.

Eleven major e-retailers like Zomato, Swiggy, Tata Sons, Reliance Retail, Meta and Amazon were consulted for preparing these guidelines. They were also part of the committee, which formulated the guidelines, along with BIS.

The Consumer Affairs Department previously said that the move is not aimed at confronting the industry, rather it is to ensure self-regulation so that unfair trade practices are curbed.