The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has settled with California-based fast-fashion retailer Fashion Nova LLC to the tune of $4.2 million for blocking negative reviews of its products on its website.

The agency said this is the first time it has fined a company for such deceptive practices. Those practices allegedly amounted to the company offering customers the chance to rate its products on a five-star scale, although it seems that reviews that were below four stars somehow never appeared on the website.

The complaint asserts that Fashion Nova had installed third-party software that gave all product reviews either a four- or five-star review and withheld “hundreds of thousands” of reviews that were more negative. That, said the FTC, misled customers into thinking products were better than they appeared, which allowed the company to inflate prices.

“Deceptive review practices cheat consumers, undercut honest businesses, and pollute online commerce,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection. “Fashion Nova is being held accountable for these practices, and other firms should take note.”

The agency added that it has sent letters to 10 companies that offer review management services and use various sleights of hand to manipulate reviews, something that violates the FTC Act. It added that all reviews must be treated equally and must not be solicited, and that companies using such services should bear in mind that they can be held responsible for violations.

Nonetheless, Fashion Nova said all is not what it seems. Speaking to The Verge, spokesperson Terry Fahn said it had addressed its website issues back in 2019. “Fashion Nova is highly confident that it would have won in court and only agreed to settle the case to avoid the distraction and legal fees that it would incur in litigation,” he said.

He went on to say that some reviews had been automatically withheld but only until they were approved by humans. Those reviews, he said, were held back some time because ofo “rapid growth,” but once they had been vetted for obscenities or threatening language, they were added to the website. As part of the settlement, the company “neither admits nor denies any allegations” and will be required to post all reviews on its site, provided they don’t fall foul of codes of conduct online.

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