Originally Posted by
Jaimito Cartero
This is certainly nothing new. There is a thread from 2011 or so, talking about the problems with shills and fake reviews (both positive and negative) on TripAdvisor.
You're right. Individuals and organizations questioning the authenticity of TripAdvisor reviews (as well as the reviews found on seemingly most every user-generated review-based website) is nothing new. From what I can tell from hunting the Internet, the Italian Competition Authority probe is new.