Amazon Bans 600 Chinese Brands For Fake Reviews

(RTTNews) - Online retail giant Amazon.com (AMZN) has reportedly banned over 600 Chinese brands across 3,000 seller accounts, due to review fraud incidents.

According to Verge, an Amazon spokesperson told that these 600 brands were banned for knowingly, repeatedly and significantly violating Amazon's policies, especially the ones around review abuse. The banned vendors include Aukey, Mpow, RavPower, Vava, TaoTronics and Choetech.

The South China Morning Post reported the news earlier, citing an interview with Cindy Tai, Amazon's Vice President of Asia Global Selling.

Amazon began its crackdown against incentivized review after The Wall Street Journal's Nicole Ngyuen reported how companies like RavPower offered gift cards in exchange for reviews.

"Following my fake review story, listings for Amazon-native electronics brand RAVPower are gone. The company offered $35 gift cards for reviews on a product that was sold directly by Amazon itself. RAVPower acted as a wholesale vendor on that listing," Ngyen tweeted.

Amazon had banned incentivized reviews in 2016. However, marketers have continued the practice by disguising those offers as a VIP testing program or an extended warranty.