Forget Non-Disparagement Clause, Clients Are Free To Post Reviews On Social Media
Posted on April 24, 2017
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Apr 21 – Daniel Levine paid $5k to the dating service Master Matchmakers to help him find true love. Now, instead of a soul mate, he has a sworn enemy in the form of the company's CEO, Steven Ward. Levine also turned to Google and Yelp. He posted reviews saying that Master Matchmakers "takes advantage of people, offering a service they do not perform." Master Matchmakers had a so-called non-disparagement clauses – provisions that increasingly cropped up in consumer contracts in recent years that forbid people from saying bad things about a company, including on review sites such as Yelp. But a new federal law, the Consumer Review Fairness Act, took effect last month. According to the Federal Trade Commission, it "protects people's ability to share their honest opinions about a business's products, services, or conduct, in any forum, including social media." The law doesn't give carte blanche to post opinions that are harassing or abusive in nature, or that are "clearly false or misleading."
