New TripAdvisor complaint threatens review syndication

November 10, 2011 | Online Travel

Travel giant TripAdvisor is facing a second and potentially more serious complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority that threatens to outlaw all third parties using its reviews to market their products.

Online reputation management crusader Kwikchex has sparked a second probe by the UK advertising watchdog following a first highly publicised complaint.

The first complaint questioned the veracity of TripAdvisor’s reviews but the second claims existing advertising rules mean no reviews can be used to market product if the author’s identity cannot be verified.

An increasing number of hotel, travel agency and tour operator websites pull in TripAdvisor content, or link to it to help promote their product and improve their search engine ranking.

The Kwikchex case cites rules in the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) non-broadcast code that states marketers must be able to show a review’s authenticity by proving it was made by an identifiable and potentially contactable person.

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