Bell Fined by Competition Bureau for Telling Employees to Write Fake Reviews

But in addition to the fine, Bell has agreed to bolster its corporate compliance program with “a specific focus on prohibiting the rating, ranking, or reviewing of apps in app stores by employees and contractors”.

Bell Canada has agreed to pay a $1.25-million penalty after the Competition Bureau learned that employees of the telecommunications giant had been downloading the company’s free apps and providing them with stellar reviews without disclosing their relationship to the company.

The fine was imposed by the Canadian Competition Bureau.

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!!!” After a few digging on LinkedIn, he uncovered that the most praiseworthy mentions were all directors, marketing managers and other people paid by Bell Canada.

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

Last year, the Competition Bureau published a bulletin which reminded consumers not to patronize products that were given fake online reviews and to also report such cases to their office.

In announcing the agreement, the bureau praised Bell’s top management for having acted quickly to have the reviews and ratings removed “as soon as it became aware of the matter”. The company also proposes to host a workshop to promote “Canadians’ trust in the digital economy”, including online review integrity. The general impression conveyed by the the review, rating, tweet, post or other representation is a key element of determining whether it is misleading.