The Bountiful Company (Bountiful), a nutritional supplement company, will pay $600,000 to settle a case with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over an allegation of inflating ratings on Amazon.com.
Besides the payment, Bountiful will be prohibited from “making any misrepresentation about or through the ratings, reviews, badges, or endorsements of any of its products or services,” the federal agency said on Feb. 16 in its complaint (pdf).
The company allegedly manipulated the reviews and ratings on Amazon through a function known as “variation listing.”
Amazon variation listing allows vendors to list products with variation—for example, sizes or colors—under a single listing. The total number of ratings and reviews of all products will show under one product page….