Truth in Reviews: Navigating the FTC's New Consumer Guidelines

Receive a bad review from an unhappy resident?
Unfortunately, it is in your best interest to keep it up…The Federal Trade Commission recently released a new report on consumer reviews and specifically addresses deceptive practices relating to such reviews.

How does this affect your business? Well, even though your company might not being paying TikTok influencers to do a #GetReadyWithMe while they talk about how great your property is, there are some important things to keep in mind when soliciting reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, or Apartments.com.

Fake Reviews
This one might go without saying, but fake reviews are a big no-no. Fake reviews can mislead consumers. Additionally, review hijacking can be an issue which is when a company takes over a property page to post a false or misleading review. Bottom line – don’t post a false or misleading review.

Incentivized Reviews
Incentivized reviews are not necessarily illegal, but if you do decide to pursue an incentivized review, you must ensure that it is disclosed clearly. So, if you do decide to go the TikTok influencer #GRWM route, you must ensure that they disclose that they are being paid or offered some incentive to give a review. This allows
consumers to assess the credibility of the review if they clearly know the person reviewing the property is incentivized.

Purchasing a Consumer Review
This one feels like it goes without saying…you cannot pay someone money to write a positive review, but the FTC takes it beyond just paying someone cash money. The term “purchasing” also includes providing something of value, including money, goods, or use of discount on future services in exchange for a review.

Bots Writing Reviews
With the introduction of AI, I am sure we have all thought about just using some bots to inflate our ratings and reviews. That being said, using such bots or fake review generators is not recommended because the FTC cautions against the use due to its potential to create fraudulent activity and cause harm to consumers.

Review Manipulation
I know we have all seen that bad review come in and thought to ourselves, what if we just took down the negative review and maybe only solicit the positive reviews. Although this practice is tempting, the FTC
report states that it is a deceptive practice to only ask satisfied tenants to provide reviews, while discouraging or hiding negative reviews. Moreover, the FTC cautions against using tactics to alter reviews, such as editing or altogether deleting negative reviews.

Legal Enforcement of the FTC Report on Deceptive Consumer Practices
So, what legal implications would there be if you violate anything mentioned above? The FTC has taken serious actions against companies for violating rules against consumer protection. These actions can include fines, sanctions, and issuing warnings to a company, among other things.

How to Ensure You Are Compliant
Make sure all reviews that you solicit or are written about your property follow the above guidelines and are available for consumers to read through. As annoying as the one bad review you get is, it is important to leave it up to ensure that you are not participating in deceptive practices. Plus, we know your properties receive great reviews, so one bad egg should not be cause for concern! 

As long as you remain compliant and vigilant to ensure that reviews of your property are fair and accurate, the FTC should not come knocking at your door!