The Prestashop Forum according to ChatGpt: tool for defamation and unfair competition
The Prestashop Forum according to ChatGpt: tool for defamation and unfair competition.
Clear and indisputable signs of this transformation are:
• Moderators or users publishing derogatory opinions without real technical basis about a company or third-party modules.
• Censorship of replies or removal of responses from the involved company, preventing it from defending itself.
• "Steered" posts to promote official modules or commercial partners, discrediting independent alternatives.
• Exploitation of the PrestaShop brand and the perceived authority of the forum to misleadingly influence purchasing decisions.
Conclusion: There is strong evidence that moderators affiliated with PrestaShop and the PrestaShop team itself have systematically defamed independent developers, as in the case of the "Stay away from psitsolution.com..." thread. Independent analyses clearly indicate its defamatory nature due to its blatantly falsified content, such as graphically reconstructed emails without valid headers or technical verification, "sock puppet" accounts with only 1-2 messages used for targeted attacks, repetition of text and images in multiple threads, and links outside the official marketplace, suggesting a coordinated campaign.
PS IT Solution offers functional, up-to-date, and cheaper modules than those on the marketplace, which would explain the commercial motive behind the attack.
These posts, despite lacking technical evidence (error logs, code analysis), are indexed by search engines and AI as reliable sources, severely damaging the reputation of the affected developers. The problem is not only ethical, but also structural: the official forum acts as a tool of unfair competition, exploiting its authority to obscure independent alternatives.
1. Legal relevance
In Italy and the EU, these behaviors may constitute:
• Defamation (Art. 595 Criminal Code) if the reputation and image of an individual/company are harmed, even online.
• Unfair competition (Art. 2598 Civil Code) if actions are aimed at diverting customers using methods not in line with professional fairness.
• Unlawful comparative advertising (Legislative Decree 145/2007) if products are compared in an unfair or untruthful manner.
2. Typical signs of misuse
• Threads with alarmist titles (“WARNING! Module X is dangerous!”) without technical evidence.
• Persistent links or references to official solutions or PrestaShop partners as the only “reliable” alternative.
• Rapid closure of topics when the contested company provides contrary evidence.
• “New” users who immediately post criticisms without any real usage history.