Ebay product reviews can ‘allow sellers to mislead shoppers’

Which? experts looked at hundreds of listings for several categories of products on eBay. Picture: eBay

Ebay’s product review system has flaws that are allowing unscrupulous sellers to mislead shoppers and boost sub-standard, counterfeit and even dangerous products, a report has claimed.

Which? warned that sellers are easily able to exploit gaps in the system to unfairly share positive reviews for potentially legitimate products from brands like Apple and Samsung.

By using the same product ID they can attach the glowing reviews to listings for inferior, or completely different, goods - making it difficult for shoppers to tell which items are the real thing.

Which? experts looked at hundreds of listings for several categories of products on eBay, including chargers, charging cables, headphones, smoke alarms and travel adaptors. They found products that shared the same reviews despite clearly looking different from each other in images posted by the seller. In other cases some customers had posted warnings about the quality of the items amid the suspicious positive reviews.

There were hundreds of listings for counterfeit Samsung chargers that had been subject to a Europe-wide recall alert - but customers would be unaware because the sellers had been able to adopt four and five star reviews, shared across multiple listings, to falsely lend credibility to their listing.

To establish whether these products matched up to the positive reviews, Which? ordered 20 supposedly “official” Apple and Samsung accessories, including chargers and USB cables. Despite these multiple products being listed by different sellers, they all shared the same reviews.

Natalie Hitchins, head of home products and services at Which?, said: “Our investigation has uncovered yet another example of online reviews being manipulated to mislead people.

“Ebay’s product review system is confusing for consumers and could even direct them towards counterfeit or dangerous products sold by unscrupulous sellers.

“Online reviews influence billions of pounds of consumer spending each year. The CMA must now investigate how fake and misleading reviews are duping online shoppers, taking the strongest possible action against sites that fail to tackle the problem.”

An eBay spokeswoman said that any seller found breaching the rules could face a warning, suspension or ban. She said: “We have investigated the listings shared by Which? and will remove any that breach our policies.