Holiday rental-accommodation management and booking company Bachcare is facing two charges under the Fair Trading Act for allegedly misleading consumers by manipulating online reviews posted by users of its accommodation services.
The charges follow a Commerce Commission investigation and relate to conduct between June 1 2017 and September 28 2018.
The Commission alleges Bachcare removed negative comments from some consumer reviews before publishing them on its website and did not publish any reviews to which consumers had given a star rating of less than 3.5 out of 5. In doing so, the Commission alleges Bachcare engaged in conduct that was liable to mislead consumers by creating artificially positive impressions about certain properties.
The case will be called in the Auckland District Court on August 13 2019.
As the matter is before the court, the Commission will make no further comment at this time.
