• Opinie.pro and SN Marketing are first entities punished by President of UOKIK for trading untrue reviews and evaluations posted on the Internet.
• The opinions they offered were fictitious and were misleading for consumers as regards products or services.
• From 1 January 2023, each business entity publishing reviews on the Internet will be obligated to inform how it verifies their authenticity.

As proven by social research held in 2020 upon a request of UOKiK, 93 percent of Internet shoppers follow opinions about a product which have been posted by other consumers. Therefore, it is so important that the opinions are true and reliable, that is, they come from the persons who purchased a specific product or took advantage of a specific service and they share their authentic experiences – either positive or negative.

- Publishing false opinions on the Internet is a exceptionally reprehensible phenomenon. This way consumers are being mislead and their shopping decisions are distorted. It is also unfair in relation to their competitors – fair entrepreneurs who don’t buy evaluations which could result in their poorer positions in Internet browsers – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of Office for Competition and Consumer Protection.

UOKIK has been investigating the activities of entrepreneurs in that regard for a number of months. Now we can see the results: fines for two business entities selling reviews.

Fines for Opinie.pro and SN Marketing

The business entities: Opinie.pro from Lubartów and SN Marketing from Kraków are the entities rendering services related to opinions on the Internet. In May 2022, President of UOKiK charged them with infringing the collective interests of consumers. Now he has issued the decisions in which he has found that unfair practices had been used and has imposed fines on both entities – of PLN 70 thousand in total.

Opinie.pro offers to entrepreneurs obtaining positive opinions and evaluations in Google cards and reviews at Facebook. Previously, the entity additionally offered opinions at Tripadvisor, Ceneo, Oferto and ZnanyLekarz. Additionally, entrepreneurs may buy likes of those comments. The entity was advertising its services as follows: “Buy Google opinions together with evaluations which will positively affect the perception of the brand on the Internet. Additionally, the evaluations enriched with a few positive sentences evoke greater trust and look neutrally. We take care to change the browsers and mobile devices and we guarantee publishing evaluations from various IP addresses which elevates opinion credibility.”

During our proceedings we have found that the evaluations and opinions had been made with no interaction with a given product or service. At the beginning, they were made by Opinie.pro on the basis of the information on the trading partner’s offer available on the Internet or they were obtained on a reciprocity basis (in exchange for another positive opinion) within a special groups on a social website. Currently they order opinions at contractors in Asia.

SN Marketing was additionally posting opinions in Google Maps as commissioned by entrepreneurs. They were offered in packages while a customer took a decision on the frequency of publication. As part of additional options, you could choose the likes of opinions, elaborated texts or supplementing the opinion by photo images. As a result, the following reviews were published, among others: “They know the job and equipment, the guy with whom I was talking, he knew everything even though my car is not a common one and there are always some problems. Here they made up everything before the ink is dry”, “Quick and professional service for reasonable money. I give 5 for a professional approach to their work”. The opinions issues by the business entity originated from various accounts.

- Such made-up reviews fully distort the image of the market, are harmful for consumers and competitors. This is why I have imposed near-maximum fines on both entrepreneurs – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

For Opinie.pro, the fine amounting to PLN 40 thousand has been imposed and the entity has been obligated to abandon the practice questioned. While for SN Marketing which had already ceased to make false opinions, President of UOKiK has imposed sanctions of PLN 30 thousand. Both business entities must communicate the decisions of President of Office in the websites they use.

New regulations

From 1 January 2023, in Poland the laws arising from the EU Omnibus directive will start to apply which assume greater transparency of shopping on the Internet. One of the major changes is the regulation of the issues related to consumers’ reviews. Each entrepreneur who makes opinions on its website will need to inform how their authenticity is verified, that is, how they check if an opinion has originated from the person who had actually purchased a product or had taken advantage of a service.

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