Trustpilot, a company in the business of online reviews, has come under scrutiny for its alleged extortionate practices targeting legitimate businesses. The company charges exorbitant fees ranging from $250 to $900 per month for its services. If businesses refuse to pay these fees, Trustpilot is accused of refusing to remove favorable reviews while retaining unfavorable ones, effectively coercing businesses into paying up.
The question arises: Are these exorbitant fees justifiable and legitimate? Is Trustpilot’s approach to online reviews a fair and transparent one? With Google assigning significant rank weight to Trustpilot, its indexes often appear on the front page of relevant search results. This poses a significant challenge for smaller companies as they struggle to mitigate the impact of negative reviews on their online presence. Trustpilot’s refusal to remove such reviews, even to the extent of not deleting accounts, has raised serious concerns about its ethical practices.
Many argue that Trustpilot’s actions disrupt the fair competition in the market and call for its removal. The question remains: Why does Trustpilot continue to hold a prominent place in the search engine market, an arena that should ideally prioritize fairness and transparency?