Fashion Nova to Pay FTC $4.2M Over Negative Review Allegations

The Federal Trade Commission has finalized an order to settle allegations that Fashion Nova, an online fashion retailer, blocked negative product reviews from being posted to its website.

On Monday (March 21), the FTC announced that Fashion Nova will pay $4.2 million under the final order. The retailer will also be prohibited from “suppressing customer reviews of its products” moving forward.

The FTC first published its complaint in January this year, and it alleged that Fashion Nova had misrepresented its reviews, even though the website said the reviews reflected “the views of all purchasers who submitted reviews.”

In reality, Fashion Nova reportedly didn’t publish reviews under four stars out of five.

Fashion Nova will now have to post on its site every customer review of a product being sold currently, though there’s exceptions for reviews containing “obscene, sexually explicit, racist, or unlawful content and reviews that are unrelated to the product or customer services like shipping or returns.”

Last fall, Fashion Nova also began working with buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Afterpay on BNPL options for shoppers, PYMNTS wrote. The partnership was designed to give shoppers more payment options through a four interest-free installments plan with Afterpay.

Read more: Fashion Nova Partners with Afterpay on BNPL Initiative

Afterpay has seen its customer base grow over the last few years. The company said 90% of orders made in 2021 were made by repeat customers, with younger buyers like millennials and Gen Z making up the bulk of them.

By teaming with Fashion Nova, the company was making an effort “to make fashion more accessible to these younger consumers.”

“We’ve always prided ourselves on providing consumers easy and affordable access to the trendiest styles,” Fashion Nova Founder and CEO Richard Saghian said at the time. “The partnership with Afterpay further enables our customers to buy their favorite looks in a way that is both seamless and convenient.”