It’s the first-ever FTC case involving blocked negative reviews.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeFashion Nova, a California fast-fashion retailer, $4.2 million to settle allegations that it blocked negative product reviews from being posted on its website. The agency says this is its first case to challenge the practice of suppressing negative customer reviews.
“Deceptive review practices cheat consumers, undercut honest businesses, and pollute online commerce,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, said in a statement. In addition, the FTC has sent letters to 10 companies that offer review management services reminding them that avoiding the collection or publication of negative reviews violates the FTC Act. “Fashion Nova is being held accountable for these practices, and other firms should take note,” Levine said.
Fashion Nova disputes the FTC’s findings, however. Company spokesperson Terry Fahn said in a statement emailed tothat the “allegations against Fashion Nova are inaccurate and deceptive.” The company never suppressed any website reviews, Fahn said, adding that Fashion Nova “immediately and voluntarily addressed the website review issues when it became aware of them in 2019.
Fahn said the company had relied on third-party software to “autopublish” star ratings and had “inadvertently failed” to publish reviews that the software had held for manual review and release, “given certain resource constraints during a period of rapid growth.” The issue was remedied several years ago, Fahn said, adding that all previously unpublished reviews were now posted as long as they didn’t contain threats or profanity and were otherwise appropriate.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Fashion Nova will pay the $4.2 million fine “for harm consumers incurred” and will be barred “from making misrepresentations about any customer reviews or other endorsements.” The company will also be required to post all customer reviews of products it currently sells, except for reviews with explicit, racist, or unlawful content and reviews unrelated to the product or to customer services.