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Disclosures regarding, whether a customer review is solicited or paid for or purchased, is also required from the companies. Also, the companies need to verify the author of a review and seek permission from the author in order to post their personal data on the sites

The government has released new set of which binds the ecommerce companies and hotel and travel booking platforms to disclose their methodology for giving star ratings to products and services on their platforms. This is done with an intention to counter fake reviews on such sites.

Disclosures regarding, whether a customer review is solicited or paid for or purchased, is also required from the companies, according to the new framework.

The secretary at the Department of Consumer Affairs, Rohit Kumar Singh on 21 November said that the objective is to minimise the bias and fraudulent reviews to start with.

Currently, the standards are self-regulatory, however, they may be made mandatory in future, said Singh.

They will be effective from 25 November.

Various companies like Tata Sons, Amazon, Flipkart, Zepto, Reliance, Google, Meta, Zomato, Swiggy, Meesho and Blinkit formed part of a committee which helped the government develop all these standards.

Also, the companies need to verify the author of a review and seek permission from the author in order to post their personal data on the sites, according to the standards.

Companies following the standards in order to curb fraudulent reviews have option to obtain certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The secretary said that India will be one of the first countries to have developed such frameworks.