FTC charges supplement marketer with hijacking ratings and reviews on Amazon.com and using them to deceive consumers

The Federal Trade Commission took action against a marketer of vitamins and other supplements called The Bountiful Company (Bountiful) for abusing a feature of Amazon.com to deceive consumers into thinking that its newly introduced supplements had more product ratings and reviews, higher average ratings, and “#1 Best Seller” and “Amazon’s Choice” badges.

The case against Bountiful marks the FTC’s first law enforcement challenging “review hijacking,” in which a marketer steals or repurposes reviews of another product. Bountiful carried out this deceptive tactic by merging its new products on Amazon with different well-established products that had more ratings, reviews, and badges, the FTC said.

Read the full news release.