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AmeriFreight Allegedly Provided Incentives For Writing Positive Reviews | DrivingSales News

AmeriFreight Allegedly Provided Incentives For Writing Positive Reviews

March 2, 2015 0 Comments

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Online reviews can have a massive influence on consumer choices, and their power continues to grow as more and more people use review sites to help make their purchasing decisions. However, concerns about falsified reviews also continue to grow, with a multitude of lawsuits and complaints arising in recent times.

Now, AmeriFreight, a company that transports cars, has come under fire from the Federal Trade Commission. The company allegedly boasted in its ads that it had “more highly ranked ratings and reviews than any other company in the automotive transportation business.”

“You don’t have to believe us, our consumers say it all,” said AmeriFreight on its website.

However, according to the FTC, the company failed to disclose the fact that the customers who wrote those ads actually received discounts for doing so. The agency claimed that the company offered customers a $50 discount to write a review, while those who didn’t write a review were charged an extra $50. Additionally, customers were told that the reviews would be entered into a monthly contest to win another $100, which was awarded based on the “most creative” title and “informative” content.

The FTC alleges the discounts and contest “incentivize customers to post positive reviews.”

“Respondents have represented, directly or indirectly, expressly or by implication, that AmeriFreight’s high ratings or top rankings are based upon the unbiased reviews of customers,” the FTC alleged in its complaint. “In truth and in fact, AmeriFreight’s high ratings or top rankings are not based upon the unbiased reviews of customers.”

Based on these allegations, the FTC charged AmeriFreight and its owner, Marius Lehmann, with false advertising and engaging in deceptive practice.

“Companies must make it clear when they have paid their customers to write online reviews,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “If they fail to do that – as AmeriFreight did – then they’re deceiving consumers, plain and simple.”

According to the FTC, AmeriFreight agreed to settle the charges by promising that it won’t misrepresent that the company’s services are highly rated based on “unbiased” consumer reviews. Additionally, the company agreed to clearly disclose any connection between itself and reviewers in the future.

The case was settled without any financial penalty. Officially, in agreeing to the settlement, AmeriFreight neither admitted nor denied the charges.

This action follows a similar situation that occurred in November of last year, when the FTC alleged that the ad agency Deutsch L.A. deceived consumers with an ad campaign that asked employees to promote Sony’s PlayStation Vita on Twitter. Similarly, in this case, Deutsch agreed to settle all charges by promising to disclose any connections in the future between a product and an endorser.

Both of these cases are a reminder to all businesses to ensure that it is clearly stated any time that reviews are written by interested parties, or by parties that have been provided with an incentive to write a positive review.

About the Author:

The DrivingSales News team is dedicated to breaking the relevant and the tough stories affecting car dealers. Have questions for DrivingSales News? Reach the team at news@drivingsales.com.

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