Amazon have just updated their Review policy on Amazon UK & EU. No more free giveaways in exchange for a review.
Chinese Seller using this technique to boost their product ranking and sales. Seem’s like Amazon are taking review manipulation seriously. Shame they don’t take VAT Fraud seriously.
Since Amazon’s announcement yesterday it seems that the mass of Amazon Review Facebook groups have already found a way round the new rule:
Here is the headline in Amazon Seller Central:
22 Nov 2016
Amazon recently updated its policies to prohibit incentivised reviews, including those posted in exchange for a free or discounted copy of the product.
We consider a review to be incentivised if you have influenced or can influence the review directly or indirectly, including by monitoring whether a review is written and providing or withholding any future benefit based on whether a review is written or the content of the review. Below are a few examples where a review is considered incentivised and is not permitted:
- You provide a free or discounted product, gift card, discount, cash payment or other compensation in exchange for the review.
- You provide or withhold free or discounted products or other benefits in the future based on whether the buyer writes a review.
- You use a review service where reviewers’ continued membership depends on writing reviews.
- You use a review service where you can rate buyers based on their reviews.
- You use a review service where customers register their Amazon public profile so that you can monitor their reviews of your products.
Incentivising customer reviews violates our policies and may violate the Federal Trade Commission Act.
The following actions are generally allowed, provided you comply with the above restrictions:
- You may offer discounts that are generally available to all Amazon customers, such as Lightning Deals.
- You may give out free products at trade shows, conventions or other similar venues where you are unable to monitor whether the recipients write a review or provide or withhold any benefits based on whether a review is written or the content of the review.
The above changes apply only to product categories other than books. We continue to allow the age-old practice of providing advance review copies of books.
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