EU bans leaving positive feedback for yourself

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in February 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

Thinking of leaving yourself some feedback? By the end of this year, you’ll not only be breaking eBay’s rules, you could be acting illegally too. From December 31st, a new EC directive comes into force, which bans businesses from “falsely representing oneself as a consumer”. The Times has established that this will apply to authors leaving themselves anonymous reviews on Amazon, as well as fake blogs and write-ups on travel sites - and presumably, eBay feedback too. Businesses who flout the new rules could be ‘named and shamed’ by Trading Standards, or even taken to court.

While I’m all about consumer protection, I can’t help thinking that this one is going to be almost impossible to police. eBay have all sorts of criteria by which they can connect two accounts together; despite some high profile examples which have been rumbled, Trading Standards are hardly going to find it so easy.

Via Church of the Consumer.

Tags for this post: , ,
Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Filed Under Uncategorized
 

Comments

3 Responses to “EU bans leaving positive feedback for yourself”

  1. eBay Business Opportunities | Carnival of eBay Sellers # 14 on February 23rd, 2007 3:51 am

    [...] Sue Bailey presents EU bans leaving positive feedback for yourself posted at TameBay. [...]

  2. Brytney on May 11th, 2007 7:35 pm

    Your site is perfect!

  3. Sue on May 11th, 2007 8:39 pm

    Why, thank you, Brytney. Normally I’d assume you were a spammer and delete you, but as you haven’t left a link to anything, I think I’ll leave you alone :-)

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