UK watchdog to investigate Google, Amazon over fake reviews

The United Kingdom’s competition watchdog is launching an investigation into fake reviews on Amazon and Google, it said Friday.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will probe whether the two U.S.-based tech giants are breaking consumer laws by taking insufficient action to protect consumers from fake reviews.

The CMA’s latest probe follows an investigation launched last year into several platforms’ internal systems and processes for identifying and dealing with fake reviews.

The watchdog said the investigation has raised specific concerns about how Google and Amazon are detecting fake and misleading reviews or suspicious patterns of behavior.

Both companies defended their policies toward preventing fake reviews and committed to working with the CMA during its investigation.