On Tuesday, Amazon said its lawsuit will allow it to “identify bad actors and remove fake reviews commissioned by these fraudsters” that the company’s human and automated systems have not been able to catch on their own.
In its complaint, Amazon said it’s taking legal action “in order to learn the identities of their administrators, shut down those Groups, and seek disgorgement of their ill-gotten gains from brokering fake reviews.” The complaint asks a court in Washington state for a cease-and-desist order against the alleged fake-review brokers, as well as damages and attorneys’ fees to be awarded to Amazon.
Amazon said Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has removed more than 5,000 fake-review groups from the social network since 2020 as a result of Amazon’s reports to the social media giant.
One Facebook group Meta removed earlier this year was called “Amazon Product Review” and had more than 43,000 members, Amazon said, adding that fake-review campaigns operate across many mainstream social media platforms.
“Groups that solicit or encourage fake reviews violate our policies and are removed,” Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Meta, said in a statement provided to CNN Business. “We are working with Amazon on this matter and will continue to partner across the industry to address spam and fake reviews.”