Amazon Sues 10,000 Facebook Group Administrators For Fake Reviews

(RTTNews) - E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) on Tuesday revealed that it has filed a lawsuit against the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups, accusing them of being brokers of fake reviews.

Amazon filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle. The company says that the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups attempted to orchestrate fake reviews on Amazon in exchange for money or free products.

These groups are set up to recruit individuals willing to post incentivized and misleading reviews on Amazon's stores in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan.

One of the groups, "Amazon Product Review," had more than 43,000 members, and allegedly offered refunds or other payment to buyers willing to leave fake reviews on products like camera tripods and car stereos.

"Our teams stop millions of suspicious reviews before they're ever seen by customers, and this lawsuit goes a step further to uncover perpetrators operating on social media," said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon's vice president of Selling Partner Services. "Proactive legal action targeting bad actors is one of many ways we protect customers by holding bad actors accountable."

Facebook parent company Meta has taken down half of the more than 10,000 groups reported by Amazon, and continues to investigate others.