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Businesses May No Longer Sue Customers Over Negative Reviews (thenextweb.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the thanks-Obama dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Next Web: A few months I wrote about the Consumer Review Fairness Act. In a nutshell, this offers legal protections to consumers who leave negative reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. You can now call out the restaurant who gave you food poisoning, or a bed-bug infested hotel without the risk of being dragged into a civil court. The long-overdue bill explicitly bans non-disparagement clauses in contracts between businesses and patrons. Over the years, there's been a rash of people getting sued after speaking their mind online. Today, President Obama signed off on the Consumer Review Fairness Act. It's now law. As great as this is for consumers, it's even better for the likes of TripAdvisor and Yelp, whose business model relies on people being able to speak their minds.

3 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Does this invalidate such clauses in contracts? by taustin · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to the press coverage, yes, it explicitly invalidates such clauses. However, you should get legal advice from a lawyer, not from the internet.

  2. Re:Oh please... by taustin · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/yelp-extortion/

    http://nypost.com/2014/10/13/restaurant-fights-yelps-alleged-extortion/

    https://www.facebook.com/YelpExtortion/

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3046136/Is-Yelp-scared-bad-review-Company-defensive-filmmaker-nears-completion-documentary-exposing-website-s-extortion-small-businesses.html

    And 126,000 other results on Google from a search for "Yelp extortion." Took all of 0.50 seconds.

  3. Re:Does this invalidate such clauses in contracts? by taustin · · Score: 3, Informative

    But he didn't ask about whether it affects terms of a settlement, he asked if it affects a contract.

    And asking the wrong question and getting an answer not actually related to his situation is why he should get legal advice from a lawyer, not from the internet.