Aiming to guard customers against fake online reviews of products, the Union government on released a comprehensive set of guidelines which would come into effect from November 25 and would be voluntary in nature.
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IS 19000:2022 is the standard that the BIS [Bureau of Indian Standards] has formulated for us, in consultation with us and the industry. Public consultations have taken place. Now, this is ready to be launched. On 25th November this will be in place.
What has been said
The guidelines titled “Indian Standard (IS) 19000:2022 Online Consumer Reviews – Principles and Requirements for their Collection, Moderation and Publication”, will be applicable to every online platform which publishes consumer reviews.
“Taking cognizance of the impact of fake and deceptive reviews and protection of consumer interest in e-commerce, the Department of Consumer Affairs constituted a committee to develop a framework on checking fake and deceptive reviews in e-commerce on 10th June 2022. The committee included various stakeholders including e-commerce companies, industry associations, consumer organizations and law chairs,” the statement said.
The reviews should be legitimate and the process of collecting, moderating and publishing of consumer reviews should be accurate, he said, adding that it should not be misleading. He said that the protection of review authors’ personal information should be ensured.
The secretary said that companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Reliance Retail, Tata Sons, Amazon, Flipkart, Google, Meta, Mesho, Blinkit and Zepto were part of the consultation process and they have assured compliance with these standards.
