When customers shop online, they trust reviews to guide their decisions. In fact, online reviews influence nearly $4 trillion in global consumer spending each year. But this system only works if reviews are authentic. When bad actors post fake or manipulated reviews, they don’t just deceive shoppers—they undermine fair competition and erode trust in the shopping experience itself. That’s why Amazon works with the Coalition for Trusted Reviews, an unprecedented collaboration to combat review fraud and protect the integrity of online reviews worldwide.
The Coalition for Trusted Reviews: Combating fake reviews, together
Launched in 2023, the Coalition for Trusted Reviews (Coalition) brings together companies including Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Glassdoor, Expedia Group, Docplanner, and Trustpilot to take collective action against fake reviews. The Coalition provides an unprecedented forum where industry leaders not only share best practices but also coordinate enforcement efforts, strengthen relationships with regulators and law enforcement, and transform how businesses detect and prevent abuse. This unified approach ensures that when one member identifies a new fraud technique or bad actor network, all can respond quickly to protect customers. As a founding member of the Coalition, Amazon is helping build a future where customers can shop with confidence, knowing the reviews they rely on are authentic reflections of real experiences.
The Coalition works to:
- Define best practices for hosting online reviews
- Share tools and methods to detect review abuse
- Stop review abuse at its source
- Maintain clear and transparent review policies
- Implement systems and processes that ensure review trustworthiness
- Provide reporting processes for flagging suspected review abuse
- Take enforcement actions against policy violations
The Coalition has also established common definitions to address review abuse. One example is the term “review broker,” now widely used to describe businesses that sell or solicit fake reviews. By creating this shared language, regulators, businesses, and customers can more easily recognize and address the problem.
Holding fake review brokers accountable
Product reviews are an integral part of the experience customers have in Amazon’s store. We invest significant resources to proactively stop fake reviews before they appear—combining advanced technology with expert human investigators. Our machine learning models analyze thousands of data points to detect risk, including relations to other accounts, sign-in activity, review history, and other indications of unusual behavior. In 2024 alone, Amazon blocked more than 275 million suspected fake reviews from appearing in our store, and our investigation teams took enforcement actions against thousands of bad actors attempting to solicit fake reviews.
But our work doesn’t stop at prevention. Through subpoenas and investigations, Amazon traces broader networks to ensure accountability at every stage, looking at bad actors posturing as sellers, payment service providers, and other enablers. As a result of our legal actions in 2024, over 40 fake review brokers and related websites ceased their illicit activity. In the last two years, Amazon has taken legal action against 115 fake review brokers in total.
These efforts are having an impact. In 2024, the Court of Milan ruled against Realreviews.it, not only shutting down the fraudulent website but also permanently banning its operator from conducting similar activities—setting an important precedent for protecting customer trust.
And then in 2025, Amazon and Tripadvisor filed their first joint civil action in Europe against the operators of Comprarerecensioni.it in the Civil Court of Milan. The defendants allegedly offered financial incentives, including product reimbursements, in exchange for 5-star reviews on Amazon.it and Tripadvisor.it—a scheme designed to artificially boost product ratings and visibility in search results. Amazon and Tripadvisor are seeking immediate shutdown of the website and a ban on similar future activities.
This collaboration exemplifies the Coalition’s broader work through its Bad Actors, Legal, and Public Policy working groups, where members share intelligence, coordinate enforcement, and work with regulators.
Continuing the global fight for trustworthy reviews.
Maintaining trust in reviews is more important than ever. Through the Coalition for Trusted Reviews, we are driving industry-wide progress—combining technology, legal action, and shared accountability to stop fake reviews at their source. When reviews are trustworthy, everyone wins: customers make better decisions, honest sellers thrive, and trustworthy shopping experiences flourish.
Learn more about how Amazon ensures a trustworthy reviews experience for customers.