FTC Action Against Sunday Riley Began With a Reddit Whistleblower
October 2019
A whistleblower's October 2018 Reddit post exposed that skincare brand Sunday Riley had its employees write fake Sephora reviews under invented identities — a tip that helped trigger an FTC investigation and settlement over fake-grassroots review fraud.
What happened
The Federal Trade Commission's 2019 enforcement action against the luxury skincare brand Sunday Riley over fake product reviews traces its public origins to Reddit. In October 2018, a self-identified former employee posted on Reddit's r/SkincareAddiction community alleging that the company had instructed staff to write fake reviews of its own products on Sephora's website. The detailed, insider account circulated widely, drew press attention, and helped catalyze the FTC inquiry that followed.
The FTC's findings, announced on October 21, 2019, substantiated the core of the Reddit allegation. Between roughly November 2015 and August 2017, Sunday Riley employees posted fake five-star reviews on Sephora.com using accounts created under fabricated identities, or asked colleagues to do so. A July 2016 email from CEO Sunday Riley herself instructed staff to each set up three Sephora accounts using different names, cities, and skin types, and to use VPNs to mask their locations and avoid detection. She advised writing reviews that were 'very enthusiastic without looking like a plant,' and told employees to 'dislike' negative reviews so the platform would suppress them.
The scheme is a textbook case of manufactured grassroots endorsement — astroturfing applied to product reviews — and the Reddit post was the spark that brought it into the open. The case became a landmark in the FTC's emerging enforcement against fake online reviews; the company settled, agreeing to stop the practice, though the consent order did not require it to admit wrongdoing. It was announced the same day the FTC settled with Devumi over the sale of fake social-media engagement, signaling a broader regulatory push against fabricated online influence.
While the manipulation itself targeted Sephora rather than Reddit, the episode is significant for Reddit's role as the venue where the fraud was exposed and as a community-driven watchdog over deceptive marketing. It is also a reminder of why Reddit is simultaneously a prime target for astroturfing and a frequent site of its unmasking: the same culture of skeptical, detail-obsessed users that marketers try to manipulate also surfaces and dismantles inauthentic campaigns.
For an archive of manipulation and misinformation, the Sunday Riley case documents both the mechanics of corporate review-faking and Reddit's function as an early-warning system that can convert an anonymous insider post into a federal enforcement action.