and service providers suffer a loss of credibility due to the contamination of their systems24. I will pause briefly to elaborate on the point just raised. In light of the aforementioned ruling, it can reasonably be assumed that reviews—or more precisely, bundles of reviews—may constitute a commodity that companies are willing to purchase. Companies may therefore turn to professional intermediaries, not only to populate the review section of their own websites, but also to enhance their visibility on third-party platforms such as Amazon, which offer services for hosting and displaying user reviews. In other words, a contract for the collection and provision of reviews concluded with a company may reflect a legitimate commercial interest. This is subject, however, to an essential condition: the methods of collecting and disseminating such reviews must ensure that the evaluative content is both subjectively and objectively representative of genuine consumer experiences. Only under this condition can reviews serve as a reliable indicator of a company’s true performance and competitive standing in the market25. VI. LIABILITY OF THE PLATFORM However, identifying the party behind a fake review is not always straightforward. The anonymous or pseudonymous nature of online interactions often makes it difficult to trace the origin of such practices, thereby complicating enforcement and attribution of liability. The possibility of releasing evaluations anonymously is strictly inherent to the medium of the Internet. The issue raises delicate questions regarding the balance between the right to informational selfdetermination and the freedom of expression in protected anonymous form26. Since reviews are posted and published on a platform, it is natural to wonder whether the internet provider has any liability. The attribution of any form of liability to ISPs for content published by third parties on the platform is the result of a complex and multifaceted process, which essentially stems from the 24 Tribunale Milano Sez. spec. impresa, 22.03.2024, in DeJure; Tribunale Milano Sez. spec. Impresa, 21.03.2024, in in DeJure. 25 On this topic. G. Magri, False recensioni di beni o prodotti in internet e responsabilità civile, in Revista Brasileira de Direito Civil – RBDCivil, Belo Horizonte, v. 20, abr./jun. 2019, p. 113 ff. 26 On this issue ruled the German Supreme Court: BGH, 23.9.2014 - VI ZR 358/13, in Neue Juristische Wochenschrift, 2015, p. 489; for an Italian note, G. Giannone Codiglione, Reputazione on line, sistemi di rating e anonimato in una recente decisione della Corte di Cassazione tedesca, in Dir. inf. inform., 2015, p.169 ss. 564 ANGELO VENCHIARUTTI
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