- Amazon.com Inc AMZN filed lawsuits in Italy and Spain as part of its global attempt to shut down fake review brokers.
- Those two lawsuits, along with 10 new US lawsuits, target bad actors who run more than 11,000 websites and social media groups trying to orchestrate in exchange for fake reviews on Amazon and other stores money or freebies.
- Amazon’s first criminal complaint in Europe is against a high-profile broker in Italy who sells fake reviews.
- The defendant claims to have built a network of people willing to buy products from Amazon and post 5-star reviews in exchange for a full refund.
- Amazon also filed its first civil lawsuit in Spain against fake review broker Agencia Reviews.
- The Spain-based operator is aimed at sellers and customers of www.amazon.es and communicates via instant messaging service Telegram to avoid detection.
- The alleged scammer refunds customers in full once they post a fake 5-star review.
- Amazon also sent warning letters to five German-based websites that redirected visitors to a fake review broker. All five websites have now agreed to cease these activities by signing a cease and desist letter.
- A recent study suggested that some prices released at the Amazon Prime event in October that appear to be discounted or marked as discounted reflect this regular price of the item.
- Under certain circumstances, the study found, a discount may reflect a price increase.
- Researchers tracked prices for nearly 15,000 products in 2016 and 2017, focusing on things like vacuum cleaners, blenders and digital cameras that are rarely bought and where prices vary widely.
- Price promotion: AMZN shares traded 1.14% lower at $113.94 in the premarket on the last check Friday.
- Photo via company
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