How India's New Online Review Rules Will Affect Tech Industry

The Indian government issued strict guidelines in order to prevent fake reviews last week. These guidelines, which set specific responsibilities for both review authors and review managers, now apply to any online platform that publishes consumer reviews. Thanks to these guidelines, the country aims to minimize fake and misleading reviews and protect online customers.

The Department of Consumer Affairs of India has created a standard titled “IS 19000:2022” that will be managed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the country’s standards body. With the new guidelines, tech giants like Meta and Google, along with local platforms like Zomato and Flipkart, will now face closer scrutiny regarding product reviews.

India's New Online Review Rules Will Affect Tech Industry

After numerous complaints about e-commerce companies publishing false positive reviews of their products, the new norms finalised by the BIS came into force as of November 25.
Under the guidelines, platforms will be required to set up review administrators to moderate reviews using automated tools or manually to filter out biases and restrict fraudulent reviews. Reviews will also include the publishing date and star rating. What’s more, the newly released guidelines will apply to third parties conducting reviews on the web.

Under the new regulations, consumers will not be allowed to edit their reviews and use foul language. Also, online review authors will need to verify their identities on review platforms. According to the guidelines, review platforms will verify consumers' identities from email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and captcha systems.

The new guidelines will ensure that negative reviews are not suppressed for no reason thereby ensuring that other consumers will come to know of possible problems sooner. Platforms will also have the power to restrict authors who post fake reviews from posting further reviews in the future.

The New Guidelines Will Increase Transparency

Sachin Taparia who was part of the BIS committee drafting the guidelines, said: "The new guidelines for online reviews are designed to drive increased transparency for both consumers and brands and promote information accuracy"

According to guidelines, both consumers and suppliers/sellers have reported some problems with online reviews. These problems could lead to a decrease in the reliability of the online reviews and the whole online review process. Some of the issues include false positive reviews written by the brand owners themselves in a bid to mislead consumers into buying their products or services. Others are false negative reviews that are intended to drive away potential buyers from a rival brand to eliminate rivalry.

The most commonly faced issue is sponsored reviews from influencers and other regular customers. Seen mainly in travel platforms, these businesses offer customers free stays, free products, and free services in order to get positive feedback. The new regulations will ensure these typed of sponsored reviews are publicly disclosed for all online customers to see.

In addition to website reviews, the new guidelines will also regulate app ratings on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. In these app stores, developers run specific campaigns in order to get more reviews on their apps from time to time. Following the guidelines, Google and Apple will be made to keep a closer watch on their reviews, star ratings, and sponsored reviews.

Any possible violation of these new standards by any entity may be considered an unfair trade practice or a violation of consumer rights. An online consumer can submit such offences to the National Consumer Helpline or the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs in India.