Review sites must also be “relevant and detailed.”
A
new law under consideration in the Italian parliament would require review sites to verify that reviewers have actually visited the tourism establishments they review as part of an effort to stop paid or fake reviewers.
Reviewers would have to positively provide their identity to the review sites, and would also have to demonstrate that they had visited the establishment within the two weeks prior to their review. The law is meant to crack down on undisclosed advertising and the practice of paying for anonymous false reviews from reviewers who haven’t actually patronized an establishment.
The law would also require review sites to provide a method for business owners to request removal of bad reviews after two years if the issues described in the review have been fixed. The legislation does not provide for a mechanism for determining whether a review was false, or how disputes would be adjudicated.
In addition to preventing businesses from engaging in unfair competition by using review sites to clandestinely place what amounts to undisclosed advertising, the new rules could also prevent a growing type of fraud committed against restaurants and other establishments. Restaurants around the world have been extorted for money by scammers who leave one-star reviews and then message the businesses saying they will leave more poor reviews unless they pay them off. The proposed Italian law would prevent such scams by requiring proof of patronage.
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Fake reviews are already illegal under Italian law. The new legislation proposes putting the onus on review website operators to determine the veracity of a review. It is likely that the legislation will be further refined during upcoming parliamentary debates on its finer details. The draft legislation requires that reviews posted on review sites must also be “relevant and detailed.”
“Today marks an important step for the protection of our businesses,” Tourism Minister Daniela Santanché said in a statement. “Reviews, which thanks to this regulatory intervention will actually be truthful, are fundamental for the success of companies and for the trust of consumers and tourists.”
Similar laws exist in the United States, but mostly concern advertising via traditional channels. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has long required that celebrities who endorse products must also have used the products, issues guidelines for social media influencers on disclosing their product reviews are paid or compensated, but has largely eschewed large-scale enforcement action. The FTC does not regulate reviews left on popular review sites like Tripadvisor, which the Italian law proposes doing.
A similar law in the United States would likely run afoul of constitutional speech protections. U.S. law limits the government’s ability to place restrictions on speech, but does allow for individuals and businesses to recover damages from harmful speech—such as damaging online reviews—if they’re found to be maliciously false.
Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises, as part of its promotion of the proposed bill, estimates that between 6% and 30% of business revenue in the tourism and hospitality sector in that country can be impacted by false reviews. Consumer groups welcomed the legislation, saying it was a step in the right direction to protect consumers and businesses from bad actors.
Assoutenti, an association of Italian nonprofits, issued a statement decrying the bill’s scope as too limited. “Any measure that guarantees greater transparency to consumers in the choice of products and services is welcome,” they said in a prepared statement.
The group argues that it’s not only review sites that should come under the effect of the law. They also argue that influencers have been doing similar harm on social media. “In the same way, however, it is necessary to regulate the sphere of social networks more effectively, where a myriad of influencers and micro-influencers review restaurants, clubs, spas, and accommodation facilities every day through contents that appear to be personal and disinterested opinions, but which in reality are the result of commercial agreements or grants of gifts that are not always clearly communicated to the public.”
