Belkin Blooper

Back in January, The Daily Background, Arlen Parsa's blog, revealed that a Business Development Rep at Belkin had been offering to pay for positive reviews of an otherwise poorly regarded Belkin USB Hub. As David Pogue explained in the New York Times, "There's no grey area here, no possible room for doubt: manipulating online reviews is contemptible. It violates our trust in the web's ability to harness the wisdom of the masses."

As a result of this 'discovery', Mark Reynoso, President of Belkin, posted a letter on his firm's website to apologise, saying: "We know that people look to online user reviews for unbiased opinions from fellow users and instances like this challenge the implicit trust that is placed in this interaction. We regard our responsibility to our user community as sacred, and we are extremely sorry that this happened".

Global 100 law firm Pinsent Masons explains, " In Europe it is illegal for a company to commission glowing reviews for its own products if they create the false impression that they were written by consumers. In the UK, the rule is found in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. Company directors face a maximum penalty of two years in prison if convicted of breaching the regulations which came into force in May 2008".