![]() Yet, when Trustpilot faced a wave of subscriber cancellations on the back of its integrity scandal, it used addresses to send subscribers emails automatically re-enrolling them for another year’s subscription (and at higher rate). No Trustpilot subscriber would recognize an email from an address with if their email application didn’t block it as junk immediately. In addition to hosting the site, one of the internet’s most popular, Trustpilot uses this domain for nearly every email it ever sends, from addresses ending in Trustpilot also owns “,” which hosts no website and is essentially a zombie domain. The primary Trustpilot domain, “,” is Trustpilot’s highly visible face. The complaint alleges that Trustpilot prevented subscribers from ending their money-wasting connection to Trustpilot by sending renewal emails from two web domains that it owns. For countless honest businesses struggling to simply improve their online presence-an essential goal of any modern company-this erased what little value their Trustpilot subscriptions had. In the wake of this, Google in late 2019 announced changes in its relationship with Trustpilot-most painful for the majority of subscribers, restrictions on visibility of positive Trustpilot scores within search results. Honest, negative reviews about these preferred subscribers were removed, while fake positive reviews about them were allowed to proliferate. Beginning in late 2018, investigations by top British media outlets confirmed Trustpilot was selling its integrity to the highest bidders-large, wealthy companies who got help gaming the reviews system to falsely boost their online reputations. Trustpilot’s revenues grew, but profits remained elusive, as Trustpilot struggled to attract subscribers, especially in the U.S.Ĭritics of Trustpilot long wondered how the site could maintain integrity when it relied on reviewed companies for profit. For example, a favorable Trustpilot star-ranking for a subscribing company would be embedded as an image in Google search results about that company. ![]() To increase revenue, Trustpilot began selling annual “subscriptions” with benefits that would purportedly help companies reviewed on Trustpilot improve their online reputations. Trustpilot’s website was popular, but not profitable, as its content was free. Trustpilot focused on online reviews of businesses which themselves operated mainly online. Other sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor focus on online reviews of mainly bricks-and-mortar businesses like restaurants and hotels. The suit alleges deceptive business practices, among other violations of the law.įounded in Denmark in 2007, Trustpilot grew exponentially by filling a hole in the online-review market. This new class action lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan seeks compensation for this group of mainly small to mid-sized companies in the U.S. And when media reports blew the lid off the scheme, and subscribers were eager to cancel, Trustpilot sent them “auto-enroll” emails designed to go straight to subscribers’ junk folders so the email went unread until it was too late to cancel. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized companies with tight budgets got nothing for precious dollars they spent on annual “subscriptions” for Trustpilot’s services. Worse, while Trustpilot promised many paying companies it would help them game the reviews system, it actually helped only a handful of high-paying, large companies do this. The complaint alleges that Trustpilot did sell its integrity, to companies reviewed on its site. earns billions of dollars a year posting consumer reviews of businesses by claiming to offer a platform internet users can trust, because its integrity is not for sale. 18, 2021), Trustpilot sent one of the Auto-Enroll Emails as defined below.** ![]() This class action, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, is brought on behalf of: the Class of all persons or entities living in the United States to whom or which, within six years before the date of the commencement (Jan. and Trustpilot A/S (together, “Trustpilot” or "Defendants"). 21-cv-432 (SDNY)įRANK LLP has filed a class action lawsuit against Trustpilot Inc.
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