Should Amazon and Other Marketplaces Do More to Verify Product Claims?

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Amazon AU

Marketplace

• 

  poboy on 04/01/2023 - 10:12

  +2

  Should car websites verify cars? Should pharmacies test all drugs they stock?

  Consumer law protections allow you to return goods to the seller, so this helps reduce the risk.

  Market places aren't in the business of measuring product efficacy. They are in the logistics business. If one supplier is letting them down, they will be dropped due to commercial reasons.

• 

  zonra on 04/01/2023 - 10:15

  +3

  In an ideal world, yes.
  But in reality how feasible do you think it would be for Amazon to carry out tests and verify claims on LED lights, light bulbs, condoms, detergent, headphones, massage guns, hand drills and the other gazillions stuff they have on marketplace?
  Would probably be easier for the individual buyer to do their own research.

  • 

    mapax on 04/01/2023 - 10:19

    +2

    They wouldn’t need to carry out tests though. A heap of the claims are so fraudulent that there are no consumer products in existence that can meet those claims.

    • 

      zonra on 04/01/2023 - 11:14

      +1

      But that means employing someone to assess the individual claim, do the research to see if it’s feasible or not.
      While a certain amount of claimed lumens on a hand torch is obviously fake to you, it’s not so to the average person (myself included), that means someone needs to be trained for that role. The same applies to effectiveness or thinness of condoms, cleaning power of detergents, output of headphones, strength of massage guns etc. you can see where this is going.
      It’s so much easier to simply ban/withdraw products based on customers’ complaints and feedbacks (i.e., reactive rather than proactive), which is more or less the method most marketplaces (Amazon, eBay etc.) is employing.

  • 

    ThithLord on 04/01/2023 - 12:14

    But in reality how feasible do you think it would be for Amazon to carry out tests and verify claims on LED lights, light bulbs, condoms, detergent, headphones, massage guns, hand drills and the other gazillions stuff they have on marketplace?

    They're worth over T$1AUD.

    They take part in the Australian market, they can afford x5000 to verify products

    • 

      zonra on 04/01/2023 - 12:30

      +2

      They can also afford to double each of their employee’s pay. But why would they if whatever they’re doing is working?

      • 

        ThithLord on 04/01/2023 - 12:46

        +1

        Amazon get awya with grossly exploiting their workers, therefor why should they ensure the products they directly profit from are held to some sort of standard is what you're going with? The OP is a hypothetical question

        • 

          zonra on 04/01/2023 - 13:24

          +2

          @ThithLord: I mean, if the product turns out to be fake or made false claims, they let you return it for full refund. What more do you want?
          Successful businesses operate as cheaply, simply and efficiently as possible, while making the most profit they can.
          They are not operating for the greater goods of the community or world peace/equality. But that’s sidetracking from the OP.
          Back to topic, do you reckon the government lets everyone register for ABN and then deregister businesses once enough complaints are made, or are they vetting everyone before hand, putting people through lie detectors, getting them do honesty courses before they can register for ABNs?
          Should Ozbargain mods gets everyone to go through posting etiquette courses before account creation, or is it easier to just ban them when they start posting sh!t?
          It’s just a simpler, more cost-effective approach.

          • 

            ThithLord on 04/01/2023 - 14:13

            @zonra: You've got carried away there, mate.

            OP asked:

            Should Amazon and Other Marketplaces Do More to Verify Product Claims?

            They are worth over a trillion AUD. They partake in the Australian market, therefore they should do more to abide by our strong consumer law.

• 

  ForkSnorter on 04/01/2023 - 10:20

  +2

  I'm more concerned about biased review scores.

  Amazon does some kind of trick to ensure average review scores (e.g. 4.5 out of 5 stars) are higher than they should be. For example, books scoring around 3.8/5 on Goodreads will almost certainly score about 4.2/5 on Amazon.

  • 

    Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/01/2023 - 10:40

    +1

    Exactly

    Some of the reviews be like, electrical item set my house on fire, did my misso, and didn’t actually do what it was supposed to - but it was cheap and delivery was next day!

    4.5 stars!

    • 

      ihfree on 04/01/2023 - 17:17

      +1

      The quality of some reviews is pretty bad.

      One of my favourites is from this Kogan Chair

      I haven’t taken it out of the box yet. So I can’t review it. - 5 stars

      Thanks, Veena!

  • 

    EightImmortals on 04/01/2023 - 11:14

    +1

    I've installed the fakespot app on my browser which gives an 'analyzed' rating whenever you look at a product.

    I have no idea if it's better than the stated Amazon ratings but sometimes it does prompt me to investigate things further.

• 

  Cheaplikethebird on 04/01/2023 - 11:12

  +2

  Doubt much can realistically be done to verify advertising claims but there should be more done to at least ensure that items sold on these 'marketplace' websites meet Australian safety requirements.

• 

  brendanm on 04/01/2023 - 11:16

  +1

  No, use your brain. If you can't do that, you get what you deserve.