You see a video, a product catches your eye, and an “add to cart” button is already blinking in the corner of the screen. A few seconds later the order is placed, paid for, and on its way — all without leaving the app. That’s how TikTok Shop works: a closed-loop model in which the path from watching a piece of content to completing a purchase has been cut to the bare minimum. That very immediacy is its greatest strength and, at the same time, the source of its most serious concerns.
Jan K., a literature enthusiast with an extraordinary fondness for Polish children’s poetry, finally managed to find a very rare book after a long search – an edition of Julian Tuwim’s “Locomotive,” which he purchased without hesitation from a used bookstore in Maryland, USA, via the online platform AbeBooks. The ease and simplicity of the solution – clicking the “BUY NOW” button, which would soon bring his dream book to him – combined with the bargain price for such a sought-after rarity in the reading community, filled Jan K. with optimism. From that moment on, he simply waited for the Polish Post to knock on his door and deliver him the publication he considered the opportunity of a lifetime. Perhaps it would have been, had Jan K. considered the key issues surrounding importing goods from the USA and the associated costs.
The phenomenon of fake reviews in the digital space has evolved from a marginal image issue to a central focus of market supervision authorities and EU legislators. The contemporary ontology of this phenomenon extends beyond primitive content fabrication to encompass any form of communication that, by distorting the actual consumer experience, misleads the recipient, directly influencing their decision-making process. Legally, a fake review is considered not only a completely false message, but also one that, by omitting important facts or manipulating context, creates a false impression of the quality of a product or the reliability of a seller. This practice is classified as unfair commercial activity if its nature causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to make a transactional decision they would not otherwise make, thus violating the fundamental principles of fair dealing.
