In the battle for consumer trust, few weapons are as potent—or as vulnerable—as product reviews. And today, one of the most pressing threats to review integrity is review hijacking: the practice of misappropriating legitimate product reviews and associating them with unrelated, often inferior products.

This tactic not only misleads shoppers but erodes confidence in the entire retail ecosystem. For retailers, review hijacking isn’t just a customer service issue—it’s a brand integrity and compliance risk.

Let’s break down what review hijacking is, how it happens, and what smart retailers can do to protect their platforms, partners, and customers.

What is Review Hijacking?

Review hijacking stems from review grouping—a legitimate feature meant to enhance the shopper experience. Platforms often allow reviews to be shared across similar product variants, such as different sizes or colors, to provide a fuller view of product quality and customer experience. When applied correctly—only to materially equivalent products—this practice is helpful and beneficial. But when misused, such as assigning reviews to unrelated or differentiated items, it becomes deceptive. Review hijacking happens when reviews intended for one product are intentionally or mistakenly applied to another— often a completely different item.

The Regulatory Gray Zone

When the FTC released its final rule on deceptive review practices on August 14, 2024, it acknowledged the complexity of regulating review grouping—particularly around what counts as a “substantially different product.” In its proposed rule, the FTC had defined this as any product that differs from another in one or more material attributes, excluding differences like color, size, count, or flavor. Providing definitive clarity here would have lent deeper insight into acceptable review grouping norms: for example, sharing reviews across 30- and 60-count bottles of the same supplement could have been established as acceptable, but not across distinct formulations.

However, the Commission ultimately decided not to finalize this definition, nor to move forward with proposed § 465.3, which addressed consumer review reuse and repurposing. As a result, the term “substantially different product” remains undefined in federal regulation, leaving brands, platforms, and regulators to interpret the boundaries themselves. Until further rulemaking defines "substantial difference," platforms, retailers and brands may apply stricter internal standards. However, the regulatory silence on this definition may also communicate that a certain level of review sharing is not only reasonable, but beneficial to inform shoppers’ purchase decisions.

How Retailers Can Spot Review Hijacking

Even with solid review infrastructure, hijacked reviews can slip through. Retailers should stay vigilant and train moderation teams to identify common red flags:

• Inconsistent Review Content: Reviews that reference features, benefits, or use cases not associated with the product may indicate that content was ported from a different listing.

• Generic or Duplicative Language: Watch for overly vague 5-star reviews (e.g., “Love it!” or “Excellent quality!”) repeated across multiple SKUs—especially if they lack detail or specificity—also accompanied by weak data signals that could indicate authenticity issues.

• Mismatched Customer Media: Photos uploaded by customers that show a different product than the one on the listing are strong indicators of misaligned reviews.  Monitoring for these signals—manually or via AI-assisted tools—helps maintain the accuracy and trustworthiness of your review content. 

How Retailers Can Prevent Review Hijacking

Retailers can proactively protect their platforms by setting clear contributor guidelines and building review infrastructure that prioritizes accuracy:

• Encourage Descriptive Reviews: Prompt customers to reference exact product attributes—like size, color, or application—to make the review content harder to misuse.

• Promote Visual Submissions: Photos and videos tether the review to a specific product, reducing the likelihood of repurposing across unrelated listings.

• Make It Easy to Report: Ensure there’s a clear “Report Review” mechanism and encourage your community to flag anything that feels mismatched or misleading.

Retailers who invest in review accuracy not only reduce fraud—they improve shopper trust and long-term conversion.

ReviewHub’s Policy: Zero Tolerance for Review Misuse

At ReviewHub, our mission is to enable trusted, authentic review syndication at scale—and that includes protecting against hijacking and deceptive grouping. We’ve built our infrastructure to ensure reviews are matched only to real, functionally equivalent products within the same collection or brand, not misrepresented or incompatible listings. ReviewHub prevents hijacking through strict internal safeguards and a policy framework modeled on FTC guidance.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

1. UPC and Product Limits Sellers may directly add up to 100 SKUs/UPCs for review sharing (i.e. consider a t-shirt in 6 sizes across 25+ colors). Requests beyond this threshold require administrator approval and are reviewed case-by-case, with required documentation.

2. GenAI-Powered Moderation All submitted reviews and product groupings pass through generative AI moderation. The system compares product descriptions to review content to catch mismatches, fraud, or misaligned grouping across unique UPCs before publication.

3. Review Validation and Enforcement Products that fail our validation criteria—such as mismatched variants or missing identifiers—are removed from syndication. Only compliant, variant-aligned products are eligible. Repeat offenses of nefarious activity are escalated. These measures reinforce our foundational belief: trusted reviews build trusted commerce.

Review Integrity Is Everyone’s Responsibility

Review hijacking isn’t just a harmless growth hack it’s a trust issue. By implementing clear policies, smarter systems, and market participant education, platforms can prevent bad actors from gaming the system. At ReviewHub, we believe transparency and accuracy are non-negotiable. Let’s raise the bar—together.