Just like the United States, Taiwan has a federal consumer watchdog agency that goes by the acronym FTC. The agency, headed by Wu Shiow-ming, recently added an amendment to its nation’s Fair Trade Act that places penalties on fake review writers.

Samsung Hired Students To Trash Competitors’ Products Online

The Taiwanese FTC recently busted Samsung for hiring students to write positive product reviews. Not only did the students rave about Samsung online, but the paid product reviewers also trashed products made by Samsung’s competitors.

When preparing for the fake testimonial case, Shiow-ming’s minions culled through 30,000 posts on 4,000 different websites. In the end, the agency slapped the tech company with an NT $10 million fine (about $340,000 US).

Moving Forward, Writers Of Fake Testimonials Will Be Held Responsible

The students hired by Samsung were not held liable in this case, but that will change soon, as Taiwanese officials amended their Free Trade Act. Moving forward, writers of phony reviews can be fined up to NT $25 million (about $840,000 US).

What About In The United States? Are Fake Testimonials Legal?

Think fake reviews are a-ok in the United States?

Think again.

Fake reviews fall under the “unfair and deceptive” marketing umbrella.

To read more about the issues with paid and fake testimonials in the U.S., go here, here and here.

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