"Third-party reviews" can provide references for consumers when shopping, but they may also mislead consumers if they become biased or distorted. It is essential to strengthen platform supervision and service rules to ensure that consumers can shop with confidence.

The "Double 11" shopping festival is about to begin. Faced with a wide variety of products, consumers are often puzzled about which one to buy. At this time, "third-party reviews" often become a reference for consumers' online shopping decisions. Many people have developed the habit of checking "reviews" before making a purchase, turning reviews into both "grass-planting machines" and "weed-pulling machines."

To help consumers rationally view internet promotional activities and product review marketing information, the China Consumers' Association recently issued consumer alerts, reminding consumers to rationally examine their consumption needs and not to blindly follow "grass-planting" traffic.

The results may not be objective and fair.

With the rise of concepts such as "grass-planting" and "real experience," a large number of online accounts named after "reviews" and "evaluations" have become popular. The reporter saw on the Xiaohongshu platform that there are tens of thousands of notes about "review bloggers," covering snacks, women's clothing, foundation, decoration, digital products, and more, covering all aspects of daily consumption. Other content platforms are similar, with a large number of "review red and black lists," "essential good item lists," "minefield avoidance lists," etc. Some reviews are detailed to a specific store or e-commerce platform, and some review bloggers have become influential big Vs. Their review results have become an important reference for merchants' publicity and consumer selection, and the bloggers themselves have also launched a product delivery function.

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According to Tang Zhe, a person in charge of the Supervision Department of the China Consumers' Association, the so-called "third-party review" usually refers to organizations or individuals that have not obtained national inspection and testing qualification certification and China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) recognition. They claim to compare the quality, functionality, design, ingredients, service, cost-effectiveness, and other aspects of products through their own testing, testing, experience, or引用对比 professional testing results, analysis and research data, and express subjective usage feelings. The results are then published and promoted through self-media in the form of text, pictures, videos, or live broadcasts. "Third-party reviews" can provide references for consumers when shopping, but they may also mislead consumers if they become biased or distorted.

Consumers believe that reviews are objective and fair. However, the China Consumers' Association found that some "third-party review" accounts did not grasp the relationship between fairness and objectivity and business profit during their operation. For commercial interests, they became traffic spokespersons, using "popular science" and "sharing" as a cover for "marketing" and "product delivery," suspected of infringing on consumers' right to know and fair trading rights. Some "third-party review" accounts themselves cannot withstand review. Different bloggers may have different sensory evaluations or even completely opposite conclusions for the same product. The same blogger may also draw different conclusions when reviewing similar related products at different times. In addition, some "third-party review" accounts publish information that is not original, all of which are network-transported or copied and mixed information, and their credibility and scientific nature are questionable.

Due to the fact that a large number of "third-party review" accounts behind the release of works are natural persons who cannot bear responsibility, consumers who blindly believe in "third-party reviews" face difficulties in consumer rights protection.

Tang Zhe reminds consumers that when browsing related review information, they should search and verify in time and consciously stay away from those with many comments and complaints, obvious product promotion tendencies, and even unfairness; for behaviors suspected of misleading and deceiving consumers, such as swapping review concepts and self-contradictory review results, they can retain evidence and complain to relevant internet platforms and departments, and legally claim their rights. For the引流优惠 information provided by "third-party review" hosts and bloggers, especially titles and slogans with strong emotions and guiding nature such as "buy blindly" and "family members can rush in with confidence," consumers should be more sober, focus on the real needs of themselves and their families, not blindly believe in "traffic," and not fully trust "traffic."

Comprehensive comparison and careful selection.One of the reasons why "third-party reviews" attract the attention of netizens is that they are based on the real feelings and perspectives of ordinary consumers. They use more diverse, detailed, and professional methods such as testing, testing, and experiencing to show or recommend information on different brands and series of goods and services to the public in multiple dimensions, providing consumers with decision-making references and bearing the "trial and error costs".

However, in actual publication, some "third-party review" accounts disclose that the review process relies entirely on subjective evaluation and lacks scientific testing methods, unable to provide real and credible experimental evidence; some bloggers and hosts' comments are full of phrases such as "must buy", "intelligence tax", "whoever buys will regret", "wait for a year if you miss it", etc., seemingly sincere, but in fact, they are deep in routine, not only misleading consumers, but some are also suspected of unfair competition or commercial defamation.

The accurate term for the review work is "comparative testing", which is actually a very professional matter, requiring a large investment of manpower and materials to purchase samples, scientifically sample, and ask professional institutions for testing.

The recent comparative test results of wireless headphones released by the China Consumer Association were selected from 36 headphones on the market, with an average price of 620.69 yuan. Such a high cost is generally unaffordable for ordinary review bloggers. In addition, headphone reviews need to be tested and evaluated in aspects such as maximum sound pressure level (sound dosage), overall sound quality subjective evaluation, total harmonic distortion, comprehensive noise reduction (active noise reduction + passive noise reduction), call noise reduction subjective evaluation, endurance, charging time, waterproof level, etc. The China Consumer Association commissioned Beijing Tairuit Testing Technology Service Co., Ltd. (National Radio and Television Product Quality Inspection and Testing Center) to undertake it, and ordinary bloggers are hard to have such technical strength and equipment.

Tang Zhe reminds consumers that when browsing information and recommended products related to "third-party reviews", they should pay attention to checking whether the review items are reasonable, whether the sources of review information or data are clearly marked, whether there are common sense errors or logical fallacies in the relevant data conclusions, and they can also check the previous achievements, likes, and netizen comments of the account author to comprehensively compare the authenticity and rationality of the information.

Advertising publication is in urgent need of standardization.

Article 9 of the "Internet Advertising Management Measures" stipulates that Internet advertising should be recognizable and enable consumers to identify it as advertising... Except for the circumstances where laws and administrative regulations prohibit the publication or disguised publication of advertisements, those who promote goods or services through knowledge introduction, experience sharing, consumer reviews, etc., and add shopping links and other purchase methods, the advertisers should clearly mark "advertisement". However, most review bloggers obviously have not done this, and the platform does not have a hard requirement, suspected of violating regulations to publish advertisements.

Tang Zhe introduced that there are a few bloggers, hosts, and operators who switch the concepts of inspection and testing indicators or falsely display inspection and testing reports, and even more directly forge false inspection and testing reports to promote suspected high-priced and low-quality counterfeit and substandard goods. If found, they must bear the corresponding legal responsibilities.

Since it is an advertisement, it must bear the responsibilities and obligations of the advertiser. "The China Consumer Association urges all third-party review marketing entities to adhere to the principles of fairness and integrity, and present real, effective, and credible consumer reference information to consumers." Tang Zhe said, and at the same time, he suggested that relevant online shopping platforms and Internet content platforms should truly strengthen platform supervision and service rules, and压实 platform-related business responsibilities, supervise and urge them to make certificates, photos, rules, and commitments clear, and further improve the application and inspection rules of inspection and testing reports, to help the public more conveniently, quickly, and accurately identify various consumer information and marketing content, so that consumers can consume with confidence and boost consumer confidence.