'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
U.K. regulators said on Friday that they're investigating Google and Amazon over concerns the online giants aren't doing enough to stop fake reviews of products and services on their platforms.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it opened a formal investigation into whether the two companies broke U.K. consumer law by failing to protect shoppers. The watchdog started looking into phony reviews on some big websites last year - without identifying any specific ones - amid the pandemic-fueled boom in online shopping.
"Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations," the watchdog's chief executive Andrea Coscelli said in a press statement.
"Equally, it's simply not fair if some businesses can fake 5-star reviews to give their products or services the most prominence, while law-abiding businesses lose out."
The CMA said its investigation has yet to determine whether either company broke consumer protection law. If it does, the watchdog could require that they change how they deal with fake reviews or be taken court.
Google and Amazon said they will work with U.K. regulators on the investigation.
"To help earn the trust of customers, we devote significant resources to preventing fake or incentivized reviews from appearing in our store," Amazon said in statement. The company said it works hard to ensure reviews "accurately reflect the experience that customers have had with a product" and noted that it blocked 200 million fake reviews before they were ever seen by shoppers.
Google said its "strict policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences, and when we find policy violations, we take action - from removing abusive content to disabling user accounts."
The CMA said its initial probe that began last year raised specific concerns about whether the two companies had been doing enough to detect fake and misleading reviews and removing them quickly from their sites.
It's concerned in particular about "suspicious patterns of behaviour" involving reviews, for example when the same users review the same unrelated products or businesses at around the same time.
Another red flag is when a positive review suggests the reviewer was paid or received an incentive to write it, the CMA said.
The watchdog said it's questioning whether Google and Amazon are doing enough to hand out adequate penalties to reviewers or businesses caught posting false or misleading reviews, as a way to deter frequent offenders.
It's also looking specifically into whether Amazon's systems are failing to stop some sellers from manipulating product listings by combining positive reviews for one product with a listing for a different one.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.