I noticed a customer review I think might be fake. In Australia, are businesses allowed to do this?
False testimonials are prohibited under Australian consumer law, writes policy professional Kat George, but they are also very hard to police
While looking at the website for NannyLane Australia, which bills itself as “the Uber for Nannies”, I noticed some glowing testimonials apparently written by happy parents who’d used their services. But a simple reverse Google image search of “James & Emily T” from Sydney led me to a stock image of a couple, and I’m wondering if these reviews are genuine. In Australia, are businesses allowed to use fake images or testimonials from customers?
– Jade, Sydney
***
In Australia, businesses are absolutely not allowed to use fake images or testimonials and represent them as reviews by real customers.
Australian Consumer Law (ACL) expressly prohibits false or misleading claims. When making any representations to consumers about products and services, businesses must be sure that the information they are providing is “accurate, truthful and based on reasonable grounds”.
Given your concerns, and the highly sensitive nature of childcare services, Guardian Australia contacted NannyLane, laying out what you had spotted, with a link to the stock image you found. In a statement, co-founders Julie and Patrick Menary said: “During the build of our new website, placeholder images and sample testimonials were inadvertently left live before the final content was in place. We have removed them.
“This was a production error during the site build. It has no bearing on the standard of care our nannies provide every day to Australian families.”
Before making any kind of complaint, Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) expects you will first attempt to resolve any problem directly with the business. In this case, after Guardian Australia contacted them, NannyLane acted quickly to remove the reviews.
In the future, if you contact a business about a review and they do not respond, you can contact the ACCC, providing a description of your concern, again linking to any relevant material you’ve uncovered.
Generally speaking, it does not matter if a business intended to make a false or misleading claim. If a business publishes a false review and relies on it as a representation of their services, that would be enough to constitute a false or misleading claim under ACL.
Beyond false and misleading claims, ACL also expressly prohibits the use of false testimonials. The law is clear, and states that a business must not “make a false or misleading representation that purports to be a testimonial by any person relating to goods or services”.
In the past, the ACCC has taken action against businesses for posting fake and misleading reviews. One example is a 2011 action against removalist business Citymove, which was found to have made statements on its website that testimonials were genuine, which, spoiler alert, they were not. Citymove was issued with an infringement notice and paid a $6,600 penalty. In 2015 the company again paid a penalty – this time for $30,600 – for infringements relating to potentially false or misleading testimonials.
The ACCC provides guidance on how to spot potentially fake reviews on its website. Further, given the rapid saturation of content generated by large language models (which some call AI), it is within reason to assume that some businesses might attempt to use these new tools to “enhance” their marketing activities. Given what we know about the use of AI in practice, it’s also within reason to assume this might result in fabrications.
The moral of the story: proceed with caution when relying on online reviews and testimonials. Report anything suspicious to the business and then the ACCC, but keep in mind that the sheer volume of online marketing makes it near impossible to police.
Ask a consumer affairs question
If you’re having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here