Italy's antitrust authority has fined travel planning website TripAdvisor €500,000 following complaints of improper business practices lodged by a national hoteliers' association and a consumer protection agency.
The antitrust authority said in a statement Monday that TripAdvisor had failed to adopt controls to prevent false reviews, while at the same time promoting the site's content as "authentic and genuine." It has given TripAdvisor 90 days to present a remedy.
The Federalberghi federation of hoteliers welcomed the decision, citing the numerous examples of "defamatory" reviews that have appeared on the site.
TripAdvisor said in a statement that it would appeal the findings, saying it believed its processes, which include a team to detect fraudsters as well as automated tools and algorithms, were "extremely effective in protecting consumers from the small minority of people who try to cheat our system."
"We firmly believe that TripAdvisor is a force for good - both for consumers and the hospitality industry," the company said.
A UK regulator has previously said that TripAdvisor must stop claiming that all the reviews on its British site had been written by independent travellers, and therefore were reliable.
Comments
The basic idea, as Mr John makes clear, is a good thing in a developed market place.
As there are a lot of time time wasters out there and to have someone feed you good comment and advice can make or break your stay.
But you do not have to read through, for example, some of what passes as 'advice' on the Portuguese expat websites over the years - some 'disguised' local telling you that your interests are fully protected. That the public administration are working, as in your own developed country, in your best interests ... to know that misleading bias is too easy.
With Trip Advisor feeding comments straight back to the hotelier it should also send the ISP and IP address of the negative commenter. The hotelier can then publicly comment on any mismatch.
Its not ideal.
But its a question of social development ...like the car borrowing and taxi summoning. It gets stretched when operating in less developed countries or being used by members of less developed societies.
It is regrettable, but TripAdvisor must lose.