On Wednesday, July 27, I will be presenting at the California Lawyers Association IP Section’s conference on IP and the Internet, on the topic of the FTC and Online Reviews. Participation is virtual. 2022 IP AND THE INTERNET JULY 27 @ 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Schedule Link Registration Link See also:
Fashion Nova, an online fashion retailer, agreed to pay $4.2 million as part of a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) in which it will be prohibited from suppressing customer reviews of its products. The FTC alleged in a complaint that Fashion Nova misrepresented that the product reviews on its website reflected the views of…
(Republished on ReviewInc blog) Health care providers, like any other business, must navigate the challenges presented by their online reputation in the form of healthcare reviews. Reviews on sites like HealthGrades, RateMDs, Vitals, and Yelp can have a big impact on a provider’s bottom line, especially for smaller providers, as ninety percent (90%) of consumers use online reviews to evaluate providers.…
For some time, Yelp has had a policy discouraging businesses from soliciting reviews. Last month, Yelp took this a step further, in an announcement that flat out sought to block businesses from working with reputation management companies (Why Businesses Should Not Work with Review Solicitation Companies). We are seeing an increase in the number of…
A California appellate court handed Glassdoor, the website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management, a major victory by upholding its standing to challenge subpoenas for reviews submitted by its users. Online game developer MZ, initiated a Doe action alleging that reviews posted on Glassdoor violated their company nondisclosure agreement (“NDA”). It…
It started with the infamous Kleargear case, where an innocent couple where left in the cold of winter in Minnesota unable to finance a new boiler because a website had reported its failure to pay a penalty for writing a bad review to its credit bureaus. The couple eventually won a large default judgment against…
Yelp Loses Challenge to Removal Order In a major victory for defamation plaintiffs, a Calfornia Court of Appeal has upheld an order requiring Yelp to remove defamatory reviews. Dawn Hassell and the Hassell Law Group (“Hassell”) obtained a judgment holding defendant Ava Bird liable for defamation and requiring her to remove defamatory reviews she posted about Hassell on Yelp.…
Ninth Circuit: Yelp’s Practices Not Quite Extortion Yelp has emerged as one of the leaders among review sites, with 120 million monthly users (including 53 million mobile visitors) in 26 countries it moved into profitability last quarter. Throughout, Yelp has had it critics from the Travel Channel’s Andrew Zimmern who famously called Yelp* a “tremendous forum for a…
Cyber Report 