If a business sues you for an honest review and loses due to anti-SLAPP laws, you could be due reimbursement for legal fees. However, in states without anti-SLAPP statutes, even if you successfully get a lawsuit dismissed, there could still be attorney's fees you have to pay. And, I can understand why somebody would decide they don't want to fight," Settlemeyer says. So, is there anything the average consumer can do to avoid being liable in a potential defamation lawsuit?
Mascagni agrees that online reviewers are most protected when they stick to their "honest opinion" and stay away from "broad generalizations," he tells CNBC Make It.
And if you do level an accusation in your online review — such as claiming you were overcharged by a business — make sure you can support your claims with documentation, like a receipt. Meanwhile, Settlemeyer says he understands that businesses can also feel vulnerable when it comes to the proliferation of online review. And the CRFA still leaves room for business-owners to sue for defamation in cases where a customer, or even a rival, posts false negative reviews online.
Related: What to ask for when things go wrong on your flight. If by chance you do find yourself the unlucky recipient of a cease and desist letter or worse, a summons for an already-filed lawsuit , find an experienced attorney as soon as you can. There also may be organizations in your area that can help with no- or low-cost legal assistance, especially when there are First Amendment implications to the lawsuit. Disclaimer: This article does not constitute legal advice.
Always consult a licensed attorney about your specific legal situation. Terms Apply. Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. Many of the credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which ThePointsGuy. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear.
This site does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. Please view our advertising policy page for more information. Skip to content. Advertiser Disclosure. Leslie Harvey. Related: TripAdvisor wants to be Facebook for travelers What can reviewers do that might put them legally in the wrong? How can I minimize my risk when writing online reviews?
Photo by Getty Images Handle reviews of small businesses with more care Practically speaking, major corporations with millions of customers are not going to have their feelings hurt by your negative online review.
Related: What to ask for when things go wrong on your flight If by chance you do find yourself the unlucky recipient of a cease and desist letter or worse, a summons for an already-filed lawsuit , find an experienced attorney as soon as you can.
Sign up for our daily newsletter. Sign up. I would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. TripAdvisor and its 24 subsidiary sites get million visitors per month, and the company has more than million reviews covering more than 4.
Yelp is also a hugely popular review site, with million monthly visitors and 33 million reviews written each month. Several studies have underscored the importance of review sites to the businesses they review.
One study showed that a one star increase in rating on Yelp yields a percent increase in revenue for a company. In other words, positive reviews are important to a company's reputation and success - and negative reviews can be very damaging. Damaging enough that businesses are beginning to target the people behind the negative reviews — not companies like Yelp or TripAdvisor, which have significant legal protections, but the actual posters of wrote the review, average folks writing about a bad experience at a hotel or restaurant.
Freedom of speech under the US Constitution, courts have ruled, doesn't extend to defamation — statements that are damaging to a person or business's good reputation. Generally speaking, a defamatory statement must be false for the reviewer to be held liable. That said, there are ways for reviewers to continue to write reviews, even negative ones, and not get sued depending on the laws of the country where the case is brought, since libel laws vary significantly between the US and other countries.
For starters, truth is generally a good defense, so would-be reviewers are encouraged not to lie or exaggerate their negative experience. But reviewers may have to prove their complaint is true — that there were, in fact, cockroaches in the hotel room, or hair in the bathtub, and present evidence as proof.
In such cases, there's often safety in numbers. Even better than truth is when "five or ten other posters share similar feelings," said Hunt. That said, as Andrew Couts at Digital Trends notes, reviews are one of the only forums in which opinions and emotions are, from a legal standpoint, better than fact, at least in the US.
That's because opinions, under the free-speech amendment, tend to be protected by the US Constitution. So it's safer to say, "In my opinion, I was served bread that tasted stale," than "The restaurant serves old, moldy, stale bread.
Similarly, if an experience left you angry, it's better to write, "The entire experience left me very uncomfortable," than it is to launch accusations at the proprietors with whom you dealt. In a court of law, emotions and opinions are more easily protected than statements of fact, which may be disputed or difficult to prove.
Defamatory and libelous reviews: Due to the lack of formal verification processes, and poor regulatory mechanisms to detect unusual and false postings, there is a higher likelihood of users posting defamatory and libelous reviews of businesses.
How to Remove Defamatory Reviews of Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses As it is not always practical to address specific problems before they have occurred, having a well-thought out and comprehensive game-plan of recourse is highly recommended for all businesses, should you find yourself as the subject of false or defamatory reviews. Posts are then reviewed by quality assurance specialists, and removed if they meet the following criteria: Posts lacking relevance: Posts that are not relevant to the general website purpose of promoting businesses and travel will be removed.
Biased reviews: Biased reviews are reviews that exhibit preference or prejudice against a specific business or owner. Proving the identity of the poster is the most difficult hurdle in bringing a defamation claim against another person or business, therefore it is highly recommend you hire an experienced Internet defamation removal attorney to assist in the takedown process.
Second-hand information: Reviews must be based on first-hand information and experiences. Most second-hand reviews have no factual foundation and lead to a higher likelihood of false information being posted.
Reviews written by users who have never stepped foot on the premises of a business, or engaged in using their product or service, are not allowed. Reviews and posts that are based on mere hearsay, or heard through the grapevine, do not constitute valid reviews and may be subject to removal. Your business is being extorted online by a reviewer: Some reviewers believe that merely being an online reviewer grants them the right to demand free products and services.
Oftentimes, past customers will threaten to leave a negative review or a string of negative reviews in order to selfishly and unfairly profit. Reporting an act of extortion to TripAdvisor with thorough documentation will increase your chances of succeeding in your action for defamation removal. Such reviews contribute little to no valuable information about the services or products of a business, and are primarily used for promotional purposes.
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