Meriton blocked negative Trip Advisor reviews with email dodge, consumer watchdog alleges

November 24, 2016 3:01

Serviced apartments giant Meriton used an email hack to stop customers from posting negative reviews on Trip Advisor, the consumer watchdog claims.

Action launched in the Federal Court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accuses Meriton Serviced Apartments operator Meriton Property Services of engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct when it blocked reviews by altering the email addresses of customers.

The ACCC claims the actions took place after its hotels had suffered infrastructure or service failures.

It said that Meriton used a TripAdvisor service called ‘Review Express’ where participating businesses provide Trip Advisor with email addresses of recent customers who have consented to passing on their details.

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Simon Canning

Simon Canning was Mumbrella's marketing and advertising editor from 2015-2017. In a career spanning journalism and communications over more than 30 years Simon has become one of Australia’s most respected analysts and commentators on the advertising, marketing and media industries. A regular commentator on radio and TV, Simon has also worked in media in the US and UK .

Topics

ACCC deceptive conduct Meriton social media Trip Advisor

2 COMMENTS

Excellent 24 Nov 16

How did the ACCC discover this – did TripAdvisor dob them in, or did a consumer?

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Rosie 27 Nov 16

An interesting example of the kind of controversy we are seeing pop up around online reviews. Over at accomnews we have heard from lots of accom managers citing examples of fake or exceedingly negative online reviews that have had the potential to cause harm to their businesses. Check out the comments on this article, for instance: http://www.accomnews.com.au/20.....t-reviews/. It seems as though the ACCC or some other industry body needs to look at both sides of the equation and come up with a solution that is fair to all parties concerned.

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