Moderation problems in online marketplaces

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

---

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Issues may include:

• This article needs to be expanded to provide meaningful information
• This article requires additional verifiable evidence to demonstrate systemic impact
• More documentation is needed to establish how this reflects broader consumer protection concerns
• The connection between individual incidents and company-wide practices needs to be better established
• The article is simply too short, and lacks sufficient content

How you can help:

• Add documented examples with verifiable sources
• Provide evidence of similar incidents affecting other consumers
• Include relevant company policies or communications that demonstrate systemic practices
• Link to credible reporting that covers these issues
• Flesh out the article with relevant information

This notice will be removed once the article is sufficiently developed. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel, or mention its status on the article's talk page.

This stub will be used to document the significant issues with moderation in online marketplaces that impact consumers by exposing them to potential scams and harmful products.

Why moderation is important

Before getting to the examples of bad moderation its important to understand why moderation is important. Here's a summary:

1. Protection from malicious scams - the most obvious purpose of moderation is to protect consumers from malicious scams especially those that use false advertising to attract customers.
2. Supporting informed purchases - moderation also forces sellers to provide buyers sufficient information to make informed decisions on their purchases. Bad moderation may result in buyers being unable to make informed decisions and could result in otherwise preventable returns and loss of revenue.