So essentially if someone lies or accuses the business of an illegal act in a review, they are at risk of being sued. Technically, consumers are protected by the first amendment, but the caveat here is that successful lawsuits are possible, and defamation can be claimed should a customer falsely represent a business. Or this Texas couple who, in 2016, faced a million-dollar lawsuit by a pet care company after leaving a one-star review on Yelp. To date, there have been several instances of people being sued for bad reviews, such as a Florida man who was sued after posting a bad review of a vet.

Have you ever found yourself checking out public reviews to find out if a service or product is worth your hard-earned money?īad reviews can happen to anyone but they are a part of running any kind of business today. Have you ever wondered exactly how serious these reviews can be? The Legal Case for Bad Reviews When reviews are genuinely positive, they essentially act as free advertising, but even one bad review can ruin a business’s reputation. īut all business owners-as well as consumers-should be aware of best practices when it comes to both writing and managing reviews.īy now we are all pretty familiar with the power of online reviews-Amazon, Yelp, Glassdoor and others are leaders in this category, and essentially their customers’ sales are driven by word-of-mouth consumer advertising. When it comes to business law, there’s always something developing on the horizon, especially given that so many people are running online businesses.

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