{"id":565715,"date":"2026-08-11T12:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565715\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T12:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:56:12","slug":"auckland-online-retailer-the-tv-shop-fined-1-1m-over-fake-customer-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565715\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland online retailer The TV Shop fined $1.1m over fake \u2018customer\u2019 reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviews with one, two or three stars would not be published unless the customer responded to a follow-up email from the company.<\/p>\n

No low rating reviews were published for a period during 2020.<\/p>\n

In her sentencing decision, Judge Belinda Sellars KC called The TV Shop\u2019s offending in relation to online reviews \u201cdeliberate and systematic\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said its managers and executive were aware of, and at times directed, the conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear from the evidence that BDL made concerted and repeated efforts to improve the online rating and reviews of its products and thereby deliberately mislead consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe methods that staff were instructed to follow for posting reviews were designed to circumvent Product Review and Google\u2019s processes to stop non-independent reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commerce Commission deputy chair Anne Callinan said it was unacceptable to post or manipulate product reviews in a way that misleads people.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message to businesses is simple: don\u2019t pull the wool over people\u2019s eyes,\u201d Callinan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKiwis should be able to trust online reviews are genuine and free of manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In its December judgment, the court also found representations about \u201cfree\u201d or \u201cbonus\u201d items were misleading.<\/p>\n

The TV Shop\u2019s popular Air Roaster Pro product was advertised for three years as including an accessory pack, described as a \u201cfree\u201d or \u201cbonus\u201d item, or \u201cspecial offer\u201d.<\/p>\n

In reality, the product was always sold with the accessory pack and customers were not getting anything extra.<\/p>\n

The TV Shop also systematically misled customers about their rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA).<\/p>\n

The company had policies and instructions in place that meant call centre staff suggested customers had no rights to refunds or remedies beyond a \u201c30-day Money Back Guarantee scheme\u201d or \u201crisk-free trial\u201d if customers thought products were broken, faulty or mis-advertised.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepresentations made by a business about the CGA are extremely important to consumers given the protective nature of the legislation,\u201d Sellars said.<\/p>\n

The TV Shop was previously fined $123,500 in 2022<\/a> after failing to comply with extended warranty disclosure requirements.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the business was fined $153,000 for misrepresentations that a ladder being sold or advertised had a certification when it did not.<\/p>\n

The Commerce Commission filed separate proceedings<\/a> against The TV Shop in February, alleging the company engaged in unconscionable conduct by utilising exploitative and misleading practices when selling high-value products to consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reviews with one, two or three stars would not be published unless the customer responded to a follow-up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7804,12619,74,51,1558,138,1656,6852,4381,37483,19631,1132,12936,111,139,69,1642,19719,1523,23941,4460,659,763,1326,223,437,30812],"class_list":["post-565715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-7804","tag-11m","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-business","tag-company","tag-customer","tag-customers","tag-fake","tag-fined","tag-million","tag-misleading","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-ordered","tag-over","tag-penalty","tag-product","tag-retailer","tag-reviews","tag-shop","tag-the","tag-tv","tag-wrote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}