On Nov. 6, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an administrative complaint and accepted a proposed consent order resolving claims against GGL Projects, Inc., an AI-enabled customer review platform that does business as Sitejabber. The FTC alleges that Sitejabber provides its ecommerce clients with the ability to (a) collect ratings and reviews from consumers at the time of purchase of various products and services, but before such products have been delivered, and (b) then post that content as reviews of the products or services themselves—that is, as ratings and reviews of products or services that the consumers, in fact, had not yet received or used.
Pointing to those allegations, the FTC alleges Sitejabber violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by (1) making false and misleading representations regarding its clients’ ratings and reviews and (2) furnishing its clients with the “means and instrumentalities” to make false and misleading representations regarding their rating and reviews.