The beauty industry is notorious for using questionable practices to sell products, from cultural appropriation, buying influencers’ positive reviews through sponsored content and brand trips, to enforcing ridiculous beauty standards. The latest scandal? Sunday Riley CEO faked Sephora reviews to boost sales.
On Monday, October 21, luxury skincare brand Sunday Riley settled with the FTC after being accused of posting fake reviews on Sephora for two years, from 2015 to 2017. It was found that Sunday Riley (the CEO herself, not the company) instructed her employees to both write positive reviews as well as “dislike” pre-existing negative reviews to get them removed from the Sephora website.
As part of the settlement, the FTC did not punish or fine Sunday Riley, nor require that they admit to any wrongdoing.
The scandal started in October 2018, when a Reddit user and Sunday Riley employee posted an internal email which included instructions on how to post reviews and what information to include. This leak was then posted on Instagram by @esteelaundry, a callout account that aims to promote accountability and ethics within the beauty industry.
After news of the FTC settlement broke, people went off to express their anger and disappointment in the Instagram comments:
My immediate reaction was that this whole ordeal was cringey and embarrassing. Sunday Riley clearly did not have confidence in her products if she did anticipate that actual customers would report positively on them. And for a luxury brand, this is an especially tacky move.
Moreover, posting fake reviews is harmful and misleading to the consumer. As FTC commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelley Slaughter explain in their letter,
“Marketers may use fake reviews to influence algorithms and recommendation engines that can determine whether or not a consumer ever sees a product or service listing. Fake reviews pollute our markets and distort fair competition, especially online.”
People have been accusing Sunday Riley of “false advertising” by posting these fake reviews. I would argue that falsifying reviews is far worse than false advertising. Most advertisements are likely to some extent false or exaggerated, and consumers are generally aware of this. We’ve all seen those mascara advertisements in which the model is clearly wearing falsies, and the disclaimer at the bottom reading “styled with lash inserts.” Not to mention the accompanying ad copy that reads something like “130% More Volume” — how is that percentage calculated, exactly? Consumers know to take ads with a grain of salt, because of course companies are going to highlight the benefits and exaggerate the efficacy of their product. But reviews are perceived as inherently more accurate and honest, because they come from fellow consumers. Or so we think.
Sunday Riley is not just manipulating online algorithms and the Sephora website, but they are manipulating their consumers. In a study done by LSA Insider, 68 percent of people said that positive reviews made them more likely to trust a local business. The Spiegel Research Center also found that online reviews mattered more to consumers for more expensive items (*cough* and $80 serum *cough*). Another study found that quantity of reviews, quality of the reviewers’ arguments, and credibility of the reviewer all influenced consumer behavior. So, yeah, those five stars carry a lot of weight.
In terms of skincare products, unreliable or fake reviews can be especially dangerous, and not just for your wallet. People may have allergies or sensitivities to certain ingredients; or, to a lesser degree, general incompatibility with a product based on skin type. Overwhelmingly positive reviews understate any potential harm to the skin a certain product can cause.
But perhaps most infuriating about this scandal is that Sunday Riley is likely not an anomaly. This comes on the heels of skincare YouTuber Hyram exposing Drunk Elephant in a video entitled “No More Drunk Elephant” for being rude to customers. Specifically, this luxury brand and direct competitor with Sunday Riley has been deleting critical comments and responding rudely to when customers asked genuine questions or expressed issue with their products on social media. Many have expressed their opinion that the FTC did not take enough action against Sunday Riley; this is a concern not just for the sake of punishing the brand itself, but because the FTC is thus setting a precedent. Their actions may not be aggressive enough to deter any other potential or current wrongdoers.
With product overload and over-the-top marketing claims, it’s already hard enough to be a smart skincare and beauty consumer. This ordeal has reinforced that, not only should we support brands with good quality formulations, but with upright morals as well.