Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – In today’s digital age, the online marketplace has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes to reach out to a global audience and expand their customer base. The online marketplace provides a convenient platform for businesses to showcase their products or services to potential customers, allowing them to shop for goods from anywhere in the world. The online market place has opened up many opportunities for small business to distribute their products. However with these new opportunities comes the unethical business practices which have been around throughout the ages in just about every form of business.
In an attempt to curb unethical online business practices the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is bringing in a new phase of its campaign known as ‘Online Rip-Off Tip-Off’ campaign.
The CMA has indicated its intention to make it possible for consumers to identify and not fall victim to deceptive sales campaigns and to report such unethical business practices. The CMA named these tactics as pressure selling, hidden charges, subscription traps and fake reviews. The CMA emphasized that these campaigns were designed to deliberately mislead.
A new survey of 3,700 UK adults, had demonstrated that 67 percent stated that the cost-of-living pressures have forced them to seek out the best possible deal, while 71 percent felt they were ‘saving money’ by taking up deals that were available, where in certain instances they were not found to be genuine.
“Now more than ever, every penny counts and the CMA is concerned that some businesses are using underhand tactics designed to part shoppers from their cash. This poll is just the tip of the iceberg as we believe the true number of victims of these rip-offs is much higher as they are often extremely difficult to spot,” said George Lusty who is Senior Director for Consumer Protection at the CMA.
