Apple took the Fakespot review app off its App Store on Friday, after it received a complaint from Amazon that said Fakespot inaccurately detects bad …
Apple took the Fakespot review app off its App Store on Friday, after it received a complaint from Amazon that said Fakespot inaccurately detects bad sellers and fake write-ups on its store. The move capped a month of back-and-forth between Apple, Amazon and Fakespot over the app, Fakespot CEO Saoud Khalifah said in an interview. Amazon said in a statement Friday that Fakespot «provides customers with misleading information about our sellers and their products, harms our sellers’ businesses» when it grades products and sellers on a scale separate from Amazon’s own reviews system. Amazon also said it was not able to verify what Fakespot «is or is not doing, today or in the future, which is why this is a security risk.» Khalifah accused Amazon of attempting to cover up fraud occurring on its platform, which he said his app is designed to highlight. «It’s a consumer right to know when you’re reading a fake review, if you’re getting a counterfeit, if you’re getting a product that is fraudulent that is going to harm you,» he said. «This system is broken.» Fakespot’s iPhone app has been installed about 150,000 times since it was released a couple of years ago.
