Summary:
John Palmer from Clayton, Utah bought his holiday tchotchkes as known as keychains or desk toys from KlearGear, which never arrived. The company's costumer service wasn't much with the situation and therefore Jen Palmer, his wife, went to a online business review website to share their negative encounter with KlearGear. Four years pass by and the company sends an email to Jen and Jon Palmer concerning the negative review. The company demanded that they remove the review and argued that they had the right to do this because the Palmers had violated the "non-disparagement" clause in the terms of service. The company threatened to charge $3,500 to the Palmers if they refused to take down the review. The Palmers were not willing to remove the review or pay the fine. Following a long and strenuous legal battle, Jen and Jon finally won a default judgement in federal court.
Analysis: The Consumer Review Fairness Act was created as an result of cases like Jen and Jon's. The act prohibits companies from fining customers for posting negative comments or reviews. However, this does not protect those from "defamation suits" in cases when the information is shared under false pretenses.
Source: How One Couple Fought For The Legal Right To Leave A Bad Yelp Review : All Tech Considered : NPR
I'm glad to hear that the couple did not back down because of the threats from the company. If every company threatened people that left a bad review then the public would not get to benefit from the reviews.
ReplyDeleteIt's outrageous that they expected the consumers to comply, four years later no less! I'm glad that they passed this law, but you're right in saying there will still be false reviews in ever business.
ReplyDelete-Anna Czyzewski