I am quite sure that many of us who travel these days tend to refer to online reviews that do not come from a paid source – as we prefer the candid, no holds barred sharing of travelers who have gone before us to a particular place, where they then share their two cents’ worth for the world to read – and make a decision afterwards. TripAdvisor has been instrumental in raising the profiles of otherwise unknown quantities in the world of travel and tourism, but it seems that the company has been slapped with a €500,000 fine in Italy because of false reviews.
Italy’s antitrust authority claims that TripAdvisor has not enough done to stop false reviews from appearing on the website, and this is after hoteliers and a consumer group complained about the situation. The antitrust authority did mention in a statement that TripAdvisor had not managed to adopt the relevant controls required to stop the presence of false reviews from being posted on their site, where they happen to promote the site’s content as “authentic and genuine” at the same time. TripAdvisor has the clock ticking against them, as they are given 90 days to come up with an amicable solution that will please all parties, including the Federalberghi federation of hoteliers.
TripAdvisor intends to look into the findings and file an appeal, as they have full confidence in their automated tools and algorithms that are deemed to eliminate possibilities of fraud.
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