The impact of fake reviews on restaurants
Speaking on the television programme “Mi Manda Rai Tre” on Saturday 25th May, FIPE Deputy Director Luciano Sbraga, highlighted the damaging effects of fake reviews on both restaurants and consumers. These misleading reviews often lead consumers to make choices they would not otherwise have made, causing significant damage to restaurant businesses.
The role of reviews has become very important:
- 25% of foreigners book restaurants online before leaving;
- Fake reviews can cost up to 30% of revenue for a restaurant that doesn’t have a loyal customer base.
Ensuring the reliability of these reviews, is essential to prevent market distortions. FIPE continues to stress the importance of protecting restaurants’ digital reputation.
Speaking at the Hotrec General Assembly last April, FIPE Director General, Roberto Calugi, highlight that 66.6% of consumers consider reviews to be a decisive factor when choosing a restaurant.
These data underline the urgency of an effective regulatory intervention to better protect restaurant businesses – 90% of which are micro-enterprises and SMEs – and to comprehensively address the problem of fake reviews.
To support these efforts, FIPE has activated “SOS Reviews” which since 2018 has been helping restaurants operators to manage false or defamatory reviews. In this way, it collects useful information to communicate with policy makers. The aim is to promote policies that guarantee the transparency and authenticity of online reviews, thus protecting fair competition in the restaurant market and its reputation.
- The full press report can be found here and a shorter extract here
- Directive 2019/2161
- News in Italian
