Bell Canada gets slapped for fake App Store reviews

Bell admitted that they have encouraged certain employees to post the reviews and ratings.

The MyBell Mobile app now has a 1.5 star rating on the Apple Store with 17 reviews nearly all with titles echoing the same sentiment: “Terrible”, “Bad”, and “Fix it!!!”

The country’s largest telecommunications company has been fined $1.25 million by the Canadian Competition Bureau after encouraging senior employees to post fake reviews online. Eventually, Canada’s Competition Bureau stepped in and declared Bell Canada guilty of rogue behavior, resulting in the aforementioned fine.

In their respective accounts and reviews, the Bell employees did not disclose their affiliation with the company. As part of the settlement, the firm has pledged to tighten up its compliance program, making sure every employee knows to hit no whenever they’re asked to review the app. The firm is also being forced to sponsor a workshop to “enhance Canadians trust in the digital economy”, which will probably open with a seminar on how not to get caught gaming your own app. The apps allow Bell customers to control their accounts directly from their mobile devices. No one was duped into paying money for a product that didn’t perform as advertised.

As soon as Bell became aware of the conduct, it removed the employees’ reviews and ratings, updated its social media guidelines, and cooperated fully with the Bureau’s investigation.

“Nevertheless, the bureau determined that these reviews and ratings created the general impression that they were made by independent and impartial consumers and temporarily affected the overall star rating for the apps, ” it said. The Consent Agreement reflects this and indicates that Bell’s full cooperation resulted in more favourable terms than would otherwise have been the case. “I commend the shared compliance approach taken by Bell to resolve this matter, which will benefit both consumers and the digital marketplace”.