Amazon has decided to take the battle against fake reviews all the way to the courts. The giant online business has filed a lawsuit yesterday in Seattle’s King County Superior Court againsst the operator of byazonreviews.com
There was a report yesterday on Geekwire.com that said that Amazon filed the first lawsuit of its kind against buyazonreviews.com operator, Jay Gentile.
“The case is part of a broader effort by the company to crack down on fake reviews,” writes Geekwire’s Todd Bishop.
Here is a bit from Amazon’s lawsuit:
Defendants are misleading Amazon’s customers and tarnishing Amazon’s brand for their own profit and the profit of a handful of dishonest sellers and manufacturers. Amazon is bringing this action to protect its customers from this misconduct, by stopping Defendants and disrupting the marketplace in which they participate.
Another unidentified person was also named in the lawsuit, who was behind similar sites buyamazonreviews.com, bayreviews.net and buyreviewsnow.com. In the lawsuit, Amazon is accusing the fake review sites of offering false “4 and 5 star reviews” for product pages, as well as using the Amazon logo to promote fraudulent “high quality 4 rating reviews” for Kindle eBooks.
The defendants have been charged with trademark violations, unfair competition and deceptive acts, as well as other allegations. Amazon is seeking restitution and requesting an accounting of the revenue earned by the fake review sites.