Five Companies Under CMA Investigation

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched consumer law investigations into Autotrader, Feefo, Dignity, Just Eat, and Pasta Evangelists as part of a crackdown on fake and misleading reviews. 

The investigations are focusing on: 

• Autotrader and Feefo – Whether 1-star reviews, which were monitored by Feefo, were not published on Autotrader’s platform nor counted towards star ratings. 

• Dignity – Whether staff were asked to write positive reviews about the company’s services. 

• Just Eat- Whether the rating system used artificially inflated certain restaurant and grocer ratings. 

• Pasta Evangelists – Whether customers were offered discounts on future orders in exchange for leaving 5-star reviews. 

The CMA’s focus on online reviews follows the increase in consumers relying on reviews when purchasing products online, and businesses not being fully transparent in the way that they moderate and display reviews.