Consumers increasingly use online reviews to shape their decisions, and both government regulators and private companies are getting concerned about reviews that are, in one way or another, paid for.

Today, the Federal Trade Commission has concluded its case against AmeriFreight, a Georgia-based broker for shipping cars that offered its customers $50 off its services if they wrote an online review of the company. In the finalized settlement (PDF), the company and its owner, Marius Lehmann, agreed to stop advertising AmeriFreight services as being "top-ranked" or "highly rated" based on consumer reviews. Any future endorsers of AmeriFreight, including online reviewers, must disclose any "material connection" to the company. The settlement does not require AmeriFreight to pay any fine.

In a response to the FTC complaint posted on its website, AmeriFreight emphasized that its discount-for-reviews program, which it discontinued shortly after the FTC investigation began in 2014, wasn't intended to produce false positives.

"The intention has never been to deceive consumers by posting and promoting bogus reviews," the company stated. "There was no requirement that reviews needed to be positive only. Compensation was provided for good or bad reviews."

The AmeriFreight case is notable since it's a clear demonstration that regulators view pay-for-review deals as violating the law, even if the reviewers aren't explicitly told to post positive reviews. Since at least 2009, the FTC has published guidelines explaining that bloggers and other online writers need to disclose when they're being compensated for writing about particular products or services. The agency's 2013 online advertising guidelines explain that disclosures about getting payments, discounts, or free products need to be "clear and conspicuous."

In addition to offering $50 discounts for customers who agreed to write an online review, AmeriFreight actually added $50 to the cost for customers who wouldn't write a review. Customers who didn't agree up front to write a review on www.transportreviews.com, an independent website, had to check a box on an AmeriFreight form saying they agreed to be billed the extra $50. The company then quoted customer reviews in its advertising materials, boasting about its excellent ratings on both transportreviews.com and transportratings.com.

Reviewing customers were also entered into a $100 contest for the "Best Monthly Review," which considered the most "creative 'Subject Title'" as well as "informative content." The company encouraged its customers to "be creative and try to make your review stand out for viewers to read!"

In the FTC's view, AmeriFreight deceived its customers by claiming it had “more highly ranked ratings and reviews than any other company in the automobile transportation business," because it had implied those were "unbiased reviews," when in fact they weren't.

AmeriFreight sent follow-up e-mails to customers reminding them about their obligation to write reviews or get an additional bill. The e-mails don't explicitly require good reviews, but the tone is fairly pushy. One such follow-up e-mail, included as Exhibit E in the FTC complaint (PDF), reads in part:

During the review process, you will have the opportunity to rate from poor to excellent. I hope my performance have been of such that you can give me an excellent rating, especially the OVERALL rating... Anything less will reflect badly on my monthly performance review. If the carrier that has shipped your vehicle did not deliver as promised, I would be grateful if you could rate them separately...

The site that AmeriFreight sought to pack with reviews, TransportReviews.com, now requires reviewers to disclose if they've received any incentives or compensation.

"If a company tries to tell you not to check the box and tries to explain their incentive does not apply, please contact us to let us know," states the TransportReviews.com FAQ. "The company is likely asking you to break our sites policies and federal law."