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2026-10-16 09:50:54Biznes SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Fake reviews, artificial five-star ratings and manipulative ways of advertising products online are the focus of proposed changes to Albanian consumer protection legislation.

The new draft law "On Consumer Protection", presented to the Parliament, aims to establish clearer rules for commercial practices in the digital environment, expanding buyer protection beyond physical stores to e-commerce platforms.

One of the issues addressed is the use of fake reviews to influence purchasing decisions. On many online platforms, customer comments and star ratings are among the main elements that consumers rely on to choose a product or service. But these reviews can create a false perception of a product's quality, reliability, or popularity when they don't come from real consumers.

Under the proposed changes, traders should not present reviews as revenue from consumers who have used or purchased the product unless they have taken reasonable and proportionate steps to verify their origin.

It also aims to prohibit the publication or ordering of fake comments and ratings, as well as their manipulation to promote certain products.

Not only comments, but also product rankings

The changes also affect how products appear in search results on online platforms. When a consumer searches for a product, the ranking of results can be influenced by various factors, including promotional payments, commercial agreements or the criteria used by the platform.

The draft law aims to inform consumers about the main parameters that determine the ranking of products and their relative importance. This means that a platform should not create the impression that a product appears at the top of the results solely due to quality or popularity, if its positioning is influenced by a promotional payment that is not made clear to the buyer.

Transparency in this case is important, as positioning in search results can directly influence consumer choices.

Another aspect of the digital economy addressed by the new framework is the use of online interfaces that can manipulatively influence consumer decisions.

These practices, known internationally as dark patterns, relate to the way websites and applications are built to guide users towards an action that might not have been their choice under conditions of full information.

Examples of these practices are making it difficult to cancel a subscription, hiding important payment information, or using visual elements that make it easier to accept an offer than to refuse it.

According to the accompanying report, the new legal framework aims to impose proportionate and dissuasive sanctions against unfair commercial practices, including those in the digital environment. However, the accompanying documentation does not specify a specific fine for the use of false reviews in online sales./Monitor


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