Sunday Riley is a Texas-based company, founded by CEO Sunday Riley,
- An investigation by the FTC - which was sparked by a whistleblower's post on social news site Reddit - found that between November 2015 and August 2017 managers at the firm, including Ms Riley, submitted fake, positive reviews of its products on Sephora's site.
Sunday Riley, founder of the eponymous skincare line
Sunday Riley posted fake reviews from 2015 to 2017, the FTC said. The investigation into the company started when a former employee accused Sunday Riley of faking reviews.
“The Commission’s investigation confirmed the whistleblower’s claim and found that the scheme to generate fake reviews of Sunday Riley products involved Ms. Riley herself,” FTC commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said in a letter. “Rather than relying on satisfied customers to generate real buzz about her products, she directed her employees to write glowing reviews and bury negative ones, while offering detailed instructions on how to avoid detection.
The FTC shared snippets of multiple emails sent by the CEO. In these emails, Riley urged her employees to always use a “virtual private network”, or VPN, before writing fake reviews so they aren’t traced back to the company.
“If you see a negative review – DISLIKE it,” Riley said in one of her emails to employees. “After enough dislikes, it is removed. This directly translates to sales!!”
