Hasta La Creative!

The Department of Justice opened its case against online review powerhouse Bazaarvoice yesterday. At question is whether the firm’s acquisition of PowerReviews was a strategic move intended to snuff out its only true competition. However, the DOJ’s focus on Bazaarvoice as product-review-platform purveyor neglects the company’s recent leap into the ad targeting business, and could be reflective of a failure by government to keep up with the rapid transitions that are commonplace in the digital tech space.

The Justice Department’s case hinges on the notion that Bazaarvoice effectively killed the competition by buying one of the only other significant online reviews platform firms. But most agree there wasn’t much competition in the first place.

“Bazaarvoice sort of created a market for ratings and reviews,” said Brian Cohen, exec VP-general manager at Etailing Solutions, which is owned by data giant Epsilon. “There’s not a lot of competition,” he said, adding, “It’s one of those things where Bazaarvoice is almost getting punished for creating a market.”

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