No More Fake Reviews - So Who’s Gonna Tell Us What To Buy?

@gs5556 

You said:

If a reviewer states that he was given or purchased the product at a discount then to me the manufacturer wrote the review.

I think that's a safe default position. But consider this, which I think is a common scenario:

I'm a reviewer. Company A sends me a product to be reviewed. Both parties expect the product to be returned once the review is finished. I write the review and it's glowing, extremely positive, because I really like the product, so much so that I would like to keep it in my reference system. I contact Company A and they say fine, you can have our standard industry accommodation, (say -40%) and it's yours to keep. The only stipulation is that you can't sell it for 12 months from the date of purchase.

I write the review, and I say the usual: I liked this product so much that I decided to buy it....blah blah.

Is that still considered a tainted, or 'paid for' review?

This is just EXCELLENT NEWS....time to put the squeeze on some of these hifi charlatans and the hifi banana republic.

File complaints a plenty O’ empowered hifi consumers and ensure that the FTC is introduced to some of these charlatans (get their names on the radar first, familiarity is key). A couple of examples should be made to instill some fear in the tender hearts of all the other charlatans.

God bless the FTC.

No its just a witch hunt that will prove very difficult to enforce with the same pitfalls and inequalities experienced in other legal matters.

Curse the FTC and most other government entities. 

@rooze 

Then I guess I’m agreeing with the FTC.😎

...and I think that's pretty much exactly what the FTC are saying they should do

No industry accommodation does not taint a review. Any member of this forum could start a business related to our hobby and get this discount.

The real question is do the reviewers that claim they buy product at this reduced price actually paying this amount? Means reviewers like Fremer would have invested probably over $ 500K in their reference systems. Stereophile claims this is the only system used by their reviewers.