BREAKING: A well-known Long Island marketer of vitamins and other supplements is in line for a $600,000 fine by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for allegedly highjacking Amazon ratings and reviews to deceive consumers as to their popularity.
The Bountiful Company of Bohemia, manufacturer of the Nature’s Bounty and Sundown brands, is said to have acted to lead consumers into “thinking that its newly introduced supplements had more product ratings and reviews, higher average ratings, and “#1 Best Seller” and “Amazon’s Choice” badges” after the products weren’t selling as well as anticipated.
The FTC says that “review hijacking is one of the clearly deceptive or unfair practices involving reviews” on which it sought comment last fall during rulemaking activities, with the case being the first by the federal agency in targeting the practice.
Further information on how review hijacking works and the public comment period for the proposed fine is available at http://bit.ly/3lPG06Y.