Lawsuit For Leaving A Negative Review Online?
UPDATE****
Thanks to Hakan at Bazaarvoice for pointing out a 2nd libel story for Yelp to contend with. This time its dentist Yvonne Wong who feels the ‘lies’ about her should not be posted on Yelp.
In addition the Eisenberg/Norberg case looks like its reached an amicable conclusion:
On Friday, a San Francisco chiropractor, Steven Biegel, settled a libel case he had filed against a former patient, Christopher Norberg, after Norberg posted a review complaining about Biegel’s billing practices.
Details of the settlement are confidential. Norberg replaced his post on Biegel’s Yelp page with an apology that reads, “A misunderstanding between both parties led us to act out of hand. I chose to ignore Dr. Biegel’s initial request to discuss my posting. In hindsight, I should have remained open to his concerns. Both Dr. Biegel and I strongly believe in a person’s right to express their opinions in a public forum.”
Now back to the original post!
Having very recently posted some comments about the value of user reviews on the UK version of Yelp, I have read with much interest a post by Bryan Eisenberg referring to the US version of Yelp, where one of their users faces a lawsuit for leaving negative reviews of a service provider.
The negative review (make that 2 negative reviews in response to the comments he got back!) was by Christopher Norberg and he is being sued by a San Francisco chiropractor, Steven Biegel.
A couple of quotes from the main article on the San Francisco Chronicle are as follows:
In a case that could chill free speech online, a San Francisco chiropractor has sued a local artist over negative reviews published on Yelp, the popular Web site that rates businesses.
When the chiropractor complained about the review, Norberg replaced it with a new entry a few weeks later that read in part, “I think that he is trying to scare me into removing a negative post (that might explain why he has only positive ones). I believe that he has been harassing me into shutting up, and I feel as a consumer I have a voice and that I can use it on forums made for sharing it, especially when I feel that the experience was unsatisfactory.”
The case raises questions about whether people can use the Internet to express negative feelings about others and also about the long-term viability of businesses like Yelp that publish third-party reviews, even though Yelp – under the federal Communications Decency Act – is not responsible for the content it publishes.
“When people try to pull down unflattering material, it has the absolute opposite effect” of what they intend, he said. “It’s very difficult to silence speakers on the Internet – it’s a culture of people who don’t like those kinds of attempts.”
My views
As you will see in my comments on Bryan’s page I am a big advocate of free speech online (providing people sharing their views have a clear conscience) and our recent partnership we have been putting in place with Bazaarvoice for UCDcommerce is a testament to our views of the importance of allowing users to review, positively or negatively, a company or individual providing a service.
Your Views
- have you ever left a negative review online?
- do you feel you should have the right to leave a negative review?
- when you see reviews which are all 100% positive, does this make you wonder how genuine the reviews are or does it just prove how good the service and/or provider is?
- which sites do you leave feedback and star ratings on, if any?
It would be really good to get some debate going on this subject as its one which plays a vital role in affecting conversion rates of online websites and e-commerce sites.
Tags: UCDcommerce, user reviews
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5:35 pm
11th January 2009
The fact that someone files a lawsuit in the US shouldn’t be the a reason for panic. If the chiropractor wins the lawsuit, we possibly have a reason to worry. We’ll have to wait and see what the outcome of the litigation will be. I think that if the customer has stated facts that are shown to be untrue, he may lose. If he has posted negative opinions, he should be fine.
One of my colleagues who had legal education (this is not an official legal opinion!) suggested that the burden of proof is not just proving that the review was false. You have to prove “actual malice,” i.e., that the accused made an untrue and defamatory statement about a person knowing that it was false, or with reckless disregard of whether it was false.
Regardless, the learning for businesses in this debacle is that you don’t manage your reputation by litigation. Customers will always find a way to share their experiences. What you need to do is to provide a positive experience and then give the customer the tools to tell the world about it.”
9:55 am
12th January 2009
I agree with your comments Sam. As I mentioned in my post, providing the ‘reviewer’ has a clear conscience about what they are saying I’m a firm believer that free speech online is something that shouldn’t be watered down, and that the reviewer shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
As you say businesses should be actively encouraging their customers to share their views in order that they can improve rather than hamper their reputation, and trying to fight against this can prove extremely damaging for brand reputations.
I’m not sure that in the case of Steven Biegel the phrase ‘all publicity is good publicity’ applies!
4:37 pm
25th January 2009
I agree with what Christopher did! So many people rely on reviews these days whether it’s buying a new car, going on vacation, going to a salon, etc. The experience of others definitely does play a fact in whether or not someone will get my business. Maybe if the business is getting bad reviews, they need to step it up a notch, or even write a comment on the website regarding any potential bad reviews.
I am currently in a situation where I wrote a negative review about a bridal shop in Caledonia, Ontario. The owner was contacted by one of the websites indicating she had a negative review written about them and had the option to dispute it. It was only after that phone call that she found out I had posted negative reviews on several websites about our negative experience. Since when does a website contact a store owner that they received a bad review???
All information written in the review were facts however now the store owner is holding one of our dresses ‘hostage’ until the reviews are removed as she feels it’s misrepresenting the situation and the statements are fasle. She will not release the dress until the reviews are removed, but even after them being removed (it was only done to get the dress), we are still waiting to hear back from her about when we can pick up the dress.
She also threatened me with having her lawyer send me a letter due to the review as she feels the statements made in my review were false…. which I totally disagree! All statements are 100% fact.
So we’ll see how this situation turns out, but considering there was already a negative review posted on one of the sites, should she not be going after them as well?
One thing for sure is she will not be getting my business or friends/family’s business in the future.
2:49 pm
2nd February 2009
Hi there ‘Q’. Thanks for posting your response, and sorry to hear that you’ve ended up in the position you are in.
I’m surprised about how your bridal shop were informed on the negative review which you have left, by the site owner of the review site. Unless I’m mistaken I don’t think this is common-practice!
It’s a real shame when situations like this occur, and in particular when you are planning a wedding – certainly one less stress that you would like to deal with!
I hope you manage to sort out the situation, and please post back on this article when an outcome has been achieved.
3:02 am
23rd February 2009
Individuals should be held accountable for their words being truthful. Unless the person is running for political office you’re required by law to do so. In the case of the chiropractor the reviewer accused the chiropractor of seeming to commit insurance fraud within his practices. You’re welcome to offer your opinion of his service, whether you liked it or not, however an accusation of fraud is hardly commenting on the cleanliness of his waiting room. Additionally I believe its only fair that an individual would allow the business the opportunity to rectify whatever criticism has been rendered and if necessary to use that in writing any such reviews.
3:49 pm
23rd December 2009
Recently I have found myself in a similar situation. We were dissatisfied with the condition of the unfinished, newly-built pavilion where our wedding reception was held, and I made a very honest, factual statement online regarding our experience. The owners threatened legal action against us if the post was not removed. They claim that posting the feedback was a breach of contract and illegal, and I KNOW that there was no breach of contract, which was supported by our attorney. However, to “prove” that we were correct still could have cost us thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, so we had to remove the posting to avoid arbitration. It is an infringement on my freedom of speech that they forced the review to be removed. We are disgusted with the situation and at a loss for what else we can do to notify consumers to beware when entering business with these people. They did the same thing to all other negative reviews and had them removed… bullies!