Yelp is THE destination for reviewing businesses, but online reviews could be taking a very different turn in the next few months after a Virginia court ruling. The ruling dictated that seven anonymous Yelp reviewers who left scathing remarks on a carpet cleaning business, must reveal their real names.
The issue began when the owner of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning in Virginia claimed that negative reviews published on the page were not written by actual customers as they were not matching up to the database. Yelp chose not to pursue it and the owner moved forward with a defamation lawsuit in 2012.
Anonymous Yelp Reviews are Slammed by the Courts
Were they Real Reviews?
Yelp’s terms of service condemns false reviews to inflate or deflate reputation and doesn’t require participants to use their real names, but it does record the user’s IP address.
The reviews for Hadeed did come from different IP addresses, but Hadeed’s attorney argued it could be coming from one disgruntled individual who set up multiple accounts at different locations.
The Ruling
The ruling relied on an interpretation of the First Amendment, which protects free speech. The court ruled that the reviews could not be verified because of the anonymity, so therefore they were ineligible for protection under the First Amendment right.
Is the ruling a blessing in disguise for protecting businesses?
“If a business wants to challenge speech and can’t verify the source because the author is anonymous, that shouldn’t be the business’s problem, it’s the author’s because they refuse to publish something that’s verifiable.” said reputation attorney Aaron Minc.
The Effects of a Bad Reviews
Is the pen mightier than the sword? A 2011 Harvard study found an extra Yelp star raised a company’s revenues by up to 9 percent. With that, it can potentially make or break a business.
With Yelps top secret algorithm, it leaves many business owners confused and feeling helpless about their reputation management.
What do you think of the court ruling and do you support it?
This is a very interesting ruling. Yelp can be a very effective marketing tool for businesses; however, the very real impact of negative reviews can be extremely costly. With such power, it stands to reason than Yelps’ reviews should be analyzed more closely. It seems perfectly reasonable to require users leaving reviews to include their names, or at the minimum Yelp should have a system in place to verify they are an actual customer. Perhaps provide a receipt memorializing the customer/client relationship?
Great article and hurray for the First Amendment! While our business has very little activity on Yelp, in December of 2013 we had a similar situation whereby someone claiming to be a former client, completely disparaged our company practices and me personally – going so far as to claim the boards I sit on are not real organizations! We spent hours trying to figure out who the person was, using the name they provided in their so-called “review”, and found nothing across our database, emails, previous client lists or even my 4700+ LI contacts. I posted my direct email address and work phone, inviting the “customer” to contact me directly so that I could address his concerns, but we heard nothing. I then contacted Yelp with all of this information and asked that it be taken down, but was told they decided to leave it up anyway. As a small business owner who prides himself on his work, I find it appalling that a company like Yelp doesn’t do more to support and defend the very companies that it is purporting to review.
Ken Schmitt, President/Founder
TurningPoint Executive Search