![]() ![]() The information is not provided in the course of an attorney-client relationship and is not intended to substitute for legal advice from an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction. If you would like to make an appointment to discuss your legal issue, please call the Cohen Law Firm today at (805) 267-7147 or send an e-mail to Randall Cohen at article has been prepared by the Cohen Law Firm for informational purposes only and does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. ![]() Otherwise, you could face significant penalties, even if the negative comment or review is factually untrue. If you are a California business owner who has included or was considering including a provision in your customer contracts regarding online reviews or “non-disparagement,” in light of the new Yelp law, you should reconsider that part of your strategy to deal with disgruntled customers who decide to share their views on the Internet. A jury awarded the consumer over $300,000 in damages.Īny company who violates the provisions of the new law is subject to penalties of up to $2,500 for the first violation, up to $5,000 for a second and subsequent violations, and up to $10,000 for a “willful, intentional, or reckless violation” of the law. When the consumer refused to pay the charge, the business reported the non-payment to a credit agency, damaging the consumer’s credit. Not only does the law prohibit the waiver of the right to comment online, it also makes it “unlawful to threaten or to seek to enforce a provision made unlawful under this section, or to otherwise penalize a consumer for making any statement protected under this section.” This part of the law was inspired by a Utah case in which a company “fined” a consumer for violating its “non-disparagement” clause by posting a negative review. 1670.8), a consumer contract “may not include a provision waiving the consumer’s right to make any statement regarding the seller or lessor or its employees or agents, or concerning the goods or services.” No Retaliation for Posting Negative Reviews Under the new law (California Civil Code Sec. Such non-disparagement provisions have been increasingly used by businesses who are acutely aware of the effect negative reviews can have on their bottom line. It is designed to stop businesses from including clauses in their consumer contracts or terms of service agreements prohibiting the consumer from posting negative comments or reviews online. No Waiver of Right to Post ReviewsĪB 2365, the so-called “Yelp law,” takes effect on January 1, 2015. Now, under a new California law signed by Governor Brown on September 9 th, business owners can also be slapped with fines of up to $10,000 if they retaliate against a reviewer or attempt to get a customer to waive their right to post a negative review. As I discussed, much of what is written in even the most scathing negative review will likely not constitute actionable defamation, and lawsuits or other punitive actions in response to a negative post can open up the business owner to further scorn, ridicule, and bad publicity in the fickle social media world. Last year, Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority started an investigation into how Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, handle sham reviews.In July, I wrote a post about the challenges faced by small business owners when a disgruntled customer or competitor posts a negative review on websites like Yelp. While the company has strict regulations around fake reviews, it has received pressure from the Federal Trade Commission to take action, Vox reported. The “incentivized and misleading” reviews targeted Amazon sites in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.Īmazon, which in the suit described itself as a “pioneer of product reviews,” has dealt with bogus reviews for years. Suboxone®: Your Path to Stopping Opioid Dependence. How businesses are seeking revenge against Yelp with lawsuits. How businesses are seeking revenge against Yelp reviews with lawsuits. One of the groups in the lawsuit, which was removed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, had over 43,000 members, the company said. Yelp hit with class action lawsuit for extortion and scheme. The groups work around the world to recruit people to write false reviews in return for money or free products, Amazon said in a news release. Amazon filed a lawsuit against the leaders of over 10,000 Facebook groups it accused of publishing fake reviews on the e-commerce site, the company announced on Tuesday.
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