MARG Warns of Responsibility for Online Reviews
Inna Gavrilchik, Head of the Department for Consumer Rights Protection and Advertising Control at the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of Belarus (MARG), stated that authors of negative online reviews are responsible for what they write. This applies to both ordinary users and companies that post advertisements disguised as reviews on their websites.
The official noted that many are guided by "old grievances" in their actions — for example, they write a negative review about an organization because they received an incorrect response or were sold low-quality goods several years ago. Although the problem was resolved, the residue, she says, remains.
"In such a situation, the consumer is responsible for their words, and this is regulated by civil law," Gavrilchik emphasized.
As for positive online reviews, if they are clearly promotional in nature, measures can be taken against the companies on whose websites they are published. If superlative words ("the best," "the most excellent") are used in a review, it is no longer just an opinion, but an advertising review.