Amazon has reportedly closed approximately 3,000 merchant accounts related to 600 Chinese brands since May for violating its policy against incentivizing positive reviews for products that were purchased through its platform. South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Amazon Vice President for Asia Global Selling, Cindy Tai, confirmed the efforts to remove the offending accounts from its marketplace in an interview with the state-owned China Central Television. Tai reportedly said that Amazon wasn’t specifically targeting companies in specific regions for violating its review policies. SCMP noted that “tens of thousands of Chinese merchants” have been affected by these enforcement actions, however, according to a Shenzhen Cross-Border E-commerce Association report on the matter that was published in July. Amazon originally allowed companies to offer their customers free or discounted products in exchange for positive feedback on the platform so long as that additional incentive was disclosed in the review. But the company updated its community guidelines to ban solicited reviews that aren’t posted as part of the invite-only Amazon Vine program in October 2016. The company explained that with Vine “Amazon – not the vendor or seller – identifies and invites trusted and helpful reviewers on Amazon to post opinions about new and pre-release products.” Amazon also said it doesn’t “incentivize positive star ratings, attempt to influence the content of reviews, or even require a review to be written” via the program. Incentivized reviews have remained a problem despite these updated guidelines, however, with companies regularly offering their customers small amounts of money (typically $5 to $10) or discounts on future purchases in exchange for positive reviews. Those reviews can be critical for companies looking to reach new customers on marketplaces like Amazon. Amazon told SCMP that “Customers rely on the accuracy and authenticity of product reviews to make informed purchasing decisions and we have clear policies for both reviewers and selling partners that prohibit abuse of our community features. […] We suspend, ban and take legal action against those who violate these policies, wherever they are in the world.” The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the number of merchant accounts closed as part of these efforts or confirmation that all of the accounts were closed for violating its policy against incentivized reviews.
