You will have to answer for fake reviews about your products and services.

As of May 28, 2022, in order to comply with EU directives, the Netherlands has introduced new rules for the use of product and service reviews on websites. The changes are aimed at protecting consumer rights. Their goal is to eliminate false positives and negatives that can mislead consumers. The reason for the tightening of the rules is that, according to Edwin van Houten of the Autoriteit Consument & Markt of the Netherlands, 97% of online review sites use various deceptive methods to sway the consumer to purchase. There are serious penalties for violating the new rules.

What changes have been introduced since May 28, 2022?

Sites that post reviews of consumers of goods and services are required;

• Clearly indicate the site's policy on posting reviews and preventing the posting of false information. For example, you can specify that the IP addresses of those who post a review are checked, or that a review is posted only after checking the fact that the person who wrote the review actually bought this product / service.
• It is forbidden to post reviews written personally or ordered by the manufacturer of the product or service.
• It is forbidden to provide discounts or other benefits to the author of the review, if the text of the review does not directly indicate the benefits received by the author.
• Negative reviews should not be removed if there is no way to prove that they are false.
• Sellers of goods and services are prohibited from liking positive reviews about their products and using such reviews for posting on social networks for the purpose of promotion.
• It is forbidden to link on your site to other resources that post reviews if you cannot guarantee the authenticity of reviews from another site.

Responsibility for violation of the new rules

The control over the implementation of the new rules was entrusted to the Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM) and the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM). These authorities can seek heavy fines for violators. The amount of penalties is 4% of the annual turnover of the violating company, but not more than 2 million euros (for the first violation). If the fined company continues to violate it, the new fine could be up to 10% of its annual turnover.

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