Amazon Goes After Sites Selling Fake Reviews: Files Lawsuit Against Buyazonreviews.com

Amazon is taking its battle against fake reviews to the courts, filing a lawsuit yesterday in Seattle’s King County Superior Court against the operator of buyazonreviews.com.

According to a report yesterday on Geekwire.com, the ecommerce behemoth 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.

[blockquote cite=”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.[/blockquote]

An unidentified person behind similar sites buyamazonreviews.com, bayreviews.net and buyreviewsnow.com was also named in the lawsuit. Amazon accuses the fake review sites of offering false “4 and 5 star reviews” for product pages, and using the Amazon logo to promote fraudulent “high quality 5 rating reviews” for Kindle eBooks.

Geekwire said the defendants are being charged with trademark violations, unfair competition and deceptive acts in addition to other allegations, and that Amazon is seeking restitution and requesting an accounting of the revenue earned by the fake review sites.