Bell Ordered to Pay $1.25 Million for Posting Fake App Reviews

Telecommunications giant Bell Canada has agreed to pay a $1.25 million fine after the discovery of fake app review postings by company employees.

If the employees had stated their affiliation with Bell, the penalty would have been avoided.

As part of its education, outreach and enforcement programs, the Bureau recently devoted its first edition of The Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest to online advertising, with a focus on online reviews. At least, that’s what reviews said on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

In the wake ofcomplaints over biased endorsements, the federal competition watchdog says Bell Canada has “affirmed its commitment” not to encourage employees to plant glowing reviews of Bell apps for mobile devices. Then suddenly, he noticed how the apps started to increase its rankings which made him curious. The Bell employee reviews, by contrast, gave both MyBell Mobile and Virgin My Account five-star ratings, skyrocketing both apps’ standings in the App Store and the Play Store.

In a statement, Bell’s director of communications and social media Paolo Pasquini highlighting the fact that it’s not Bell’s policy to encourage employees to rate its products and that employees are being informed of that again (via The Globe and Mail). As a result, the total star rating for the company’s apps was temporarily affected.

In the aftermath of the incident, Bell has also said it will sponsor and host a workshop that will “promote, discuss and enhance Canadians’ trust in the digital economy, including the integrity of online reviews”.