FTC's rule banning fake online reviews goes into effect

This sort of regulation seems oddly granular and not super useful, but not terrible. Companies don't have to offer customer review features. I wonder what would happen if companies decided to remove reviews, rebrand, or switch to another paradigm?

I think the possible changes you mentioned are a desired outcome. The FTC’s consumer protection role tends to be about keeping free markets functional, and under Biden that’s had a lot of focus on removing market distortions. Reviews are tricky that way because people want to trust other buyers but scammers have exploited that trust, and a company removing the reviews section of their site because they don’t want them to be accurate seems like a net win similar to forcing companies to remove false claims. The FTC doesn’t require your product to be good, just honestly sold.

My objection is it's too granular and bad faith operators will only pivot slightly to continue to exploit. It seems ineffective.