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Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

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Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#121

Post by russelg »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #112
Quarrel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't legal for them to buy positive reviews in the UK. They might have some problems with the Advertising Regulator, but their bigger problems would be with the Competitions & Market Authority. Misleading & deceptive conduct to sell your goods is illegal in the UK (and the EU & Australia and other places). Negative reviews would seriously open you to being sued by the people you are review bombing..

> Misleading & deceptive conduct to sell your goods is illegal in the UK (and the EU & Australia and other places). How often is this enforced?

The ACCC (https://www.accc.gov.au/) don't fuck around. They're basically the reason Steam started offering refunds for games that didn't work for example.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#122

Post by Dalewyn »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #77
MrGilbert wrote: post #8

Asus is currently in a bad spot, as they released a BIOS update as Beta, which should address an issue where their boards would cause a CPU to explode. They did, however, leave the usual "this is beta, install on your own risk, this will void your warranty" disclaimer on, which currently backfires, as it seems as if Asus does not want to take responsibility. It is unknown if the statement was intentional , or just th…

> this is beta, install on your own risk, this will void your warranty I’ve seen an increasing number of products I own prompt me to join a beta program that, if accepted, voids the warranty of the device. I help them vet early features before they roll them out to all of their users and, in exchange, they… ask me to let them maybe brick my device at my expense? Who agrees to these terms?

Just so you know, overclocking also voids warranties regardless of manufacturer or vendor recommendations. This includes AMD EXPO[1][2] and Intel XMP[3][4].

If you want warranty coverage, don't overclock no matter how much the marketing encourages you.

[1]: https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/expo

[2]: Overclocking and/or undervolting AMD processors and memory, including without limitation, altering clock frequencies / multipliers or memory timing / voltage, to operate outside of AMD’s published specifications will void any applicable AMD product warranty, even when enabled via AMD hardware and/or software.

[3]: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/extreme-memor...

[4]: Altering clock frequency or voltage may damage or reduce the useful life of the processor and other system components, and may reduce system stability and performance. Product warranties may not apply if the processor is operated beyond its specifications. Check with the manufacturers of system and components for additional details.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#123

Post by Too »

s1k3s wrote: post #57

So does the entire group of “tech reviews” creators on YouTube. Finding an actual review of a product has become impossible, since most videos are just the guy basically reading the product landing page with some nice angles on camera. Ban this and the entire category disappears from YT.

Add unboxing. Nobody cares how nicely the user manual was rolled up into premium origami packaging.

I care about the product performance and how well it holds up after few weeks abuse.

The fight to be first with a review even if you haven’t even reviewed anything is getting ridiculous. Just wait until AI get thrown into this mix.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#124

Post by DangitBobby »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #17
mnd999 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It almost certainly (in the UK at least) would carry a high risk of a defamation claim for the people writing (or generating) them.

Defamation means lying. You can buy negative reviews of your competition where nobody lies. There are certainly a lot of interesting subtleties and implications here though.

You actually are lying though, because the goal of leaving fake reviews is to intentionally mislead consumers to give the false impression of genuine experiences with the product. "Fake reviews" are "lying for profit" AKA fraud.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#125

Post by okay_plastic »

borissk wrote: post #48
blagie wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is considered good right now? Asus was my go-to brand for quality, but I haven't looked in a decade or more. I'm glad to pay a modest premium for reliability. I'd like parts which are well-tested, use high-quality capacitors, and have basic safety features (like over-current / over-voltage protection on power supplies). What I'd really like is a review site which steps through the engineering of things like mothe…

MSI has by far the best BIOS team. AsRock has the best technical support.

I have an MSI Z370 board. It does not support x8/x4/x4 PCIe bifurcation in BIOS despite chipset support, and using the latest BIOS it fails to POST with an Intel Arc GPU in the first slot. This latter issue is maybe defensible as Z370 doesn't technically have support for Arc, but I've read that 300 series boards from other vendors work fine, so I'm going to hold it against MSI anyways.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#126

Post by chris-orgmenta »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #22
jeroenhd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure about that: > Don’t commission third parties to write fake reviews – you may be liable for their actions https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-reviews-an... With proper disclosure there may be some leeway, but I wouldn't just assume paying someone for a fake review is legal. UK advertising laws can be very strict in some cases (and rightfully so, in my opinion).

I don't know UK law, but at least in the US, there's a clear difference between "illegal" and "liable". There's a lot of stuff that's perfectly legal, but that I may be liable for.

IANAL. I understand that fake reviews are indeed against the law in the UK (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008, etc.)?

But perhaps it's viewed as too loosely defined or hard to enforce.

In context here, liable:

1) Liable for claims that the fake review makes, i.e. held to the same standards as any other marketing/claims you make about your product,

2) Liable if you mislead consumers by making them think it's a real review.

"You are liable, i.e. you are the entity that may break the law"

The Digital Markets Bill may affect this in 2024 (?) - Not sure whether it will be more focused on regulating 'platforms'.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#128

Post by hashworks »

Dalewyn wrote: post #122
r3trohack3r wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this is beta, install on your own risk, this will void your warranty I’ve seen an increasing number of products I own prompt me to join a beta program that, if accepted, voids the warranty of the device. I help them vet early features before they roll them out to all of their users and, in exchange, they… ask me to let them maybe brick my device at my expense? Who agrees to these terms?

Just so you know, overclocking also voids warranties regardless of manufacturer or vendor recommendations. This includes AMD EXPO[1][2] and Intel XMP[3][4]. If you want warranty coverage, don't overclock no matter how much the marketing encourages you. [1]: https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/expo [2]: Overclocking and/or undervolting AMD processors and memory, including without limitation, altering clock frequencies…

[2] and [4] sound like manual clock/voltage configurations, not the automatic OC of modern AMD CPUs or included XMP Profiles. Those are configs the manufacturer provided.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#129

Post by Dalewyn »

hashworks wrote: post #128
Dalewyn wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just so you know, overclocking also voids warranties regardless of manufacturer or vendor recommendations. This includes AMD EXPO[1][2] and Intel XMP[3][4]. If you want warranty coverage, don't overclock no matter how much the marketing encourages you. [1]: https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/expo [2]: Overclocking and/or undervolting AMD processors and memory, including without limitation, altering clock frequencies…

[2] and [4] sound like manual clock/voltage configurations, not the automatic OC of modern AMD CPUs or included XMP Profiles. Those are configs the manufacturer provided.

[2] is explicit, saying "even when enabled via AMD hardware and/or software." If it wasn't clear, it's the footnote in [1].

Overclocking has always voided warranties, it's why overclocking has traditionally been the realm of enthusiasts and tinkerers who generally aren't concerned with reliability, safety, or monetary value and know what they're doing.

The more mundane users really should be made aware that overclocking is tantamount to playing with fire, sometimes literally.

Re: Asus UK PR believes it is ‘legal to buy positive reviews’

#130

Post by merb »

Dalewyn wrote: post #129
hashworks wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[2] and [4] sound like manual clock/voltage configurations, not the automatic OC of modern AMD CPUs or included XMP Profiles. Those are configs the manufacturer provided.

[2] is explicit, saying "even when enabled via AMD hardware and/or software." If it wasn't clear, it's the footnote in [1]. Overclocking has always voided warranties, it's why overclocking has traditionally been the realm of enthusiasts and tinkerers who generally aren't concerned with reliability, safety, or monetary value and know what they're doing. The more mundane users really should be made aware that overclock…

amd expo is covered by warranty. expo also does not overclock the cpu. that amd expo changed cpu voltage was a decision by asus, not by amd, the asus implementation is basically not up to spec.
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