(Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Fashion Nova) LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles-based Fashion Nova will be required to pay $4.2 million to settle allegations it blocked negative reviews of its products from being posted to its website, the Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday.The FTC alleged the fast-fashion online retailer misrepresented that the reviews on its website reflected the views of all purchasers who submitted reviews, when in fact it suppressed reviews with ratings lower than four stars out of five.The FTC said it is the agency's first involving a company's efforts to conceal negative customer reviews."Deceptive review practices cheat consumers, undercut honest businesses and pollute online commerce," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "Fashion Nova is being held accountable for these practices, and other firms should take note."TRENDING NOW:The company said in a statement that the FTC’s allegations are "inaccurate and deceptive."Fashion Nova "never suppressed any website reviews, and it immediately and voluntarily addressed the website review issues when it became aware of them in 2019," according to the company. "Fashion Nova is highly confident that it would have won in court and only agreed to settle the case to avoid the distraction and legal fees that it would incur in litigation."The company blamed its reliance on a third-party software vendor, which offered an option to "autopublish" various star ratings in a drop-down menu."Those that were not autopublished were filtered and could be individually reviewed and manually released," according to Fashion Nova. "At one point in time, the company inadvertently failed to complete this process given.