Mass. Congressman's Bill Protects Your Right To Leave Bad Online Reviews

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new bill passed last week by Congress wants to protect your right to savage the local coffee shop in your online reviews, just so long as you do so honestly.

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III is one of the bipartisan sponsors behind the bill. He considers the legislation critical to protecting customers against non-disparagement clauses, which he says are often "buried in fine print," then used to take legal action against customers who leave bad reviews.

“This bill is about protecting consumers posting honest feedback online," according to a statement from Kennedy. "Online reviews and ratings are critical in the 21st Century and consumers should be able to post, comment and tweet their honest and accurate feedback without fear of retribution."

There's been at least one case of a non-disparagement clause going to court. The Associated Press reports that a Dallas couple was sued by a pet-sitting company for up to $1 million after giving the company a one-star review on Yelp and complaining their fish had been overfed. The case was later dismissed, according to the AP.

The Democratic congressman is going to bat on behalf of TripAdvisor, whose Needham headquarters is in his district. The legislation would also apply to Yelp and any other forum where consumers can post reviews.

Business owners can sometimes feel unfairly punished by negative online reviews, or can see their business plummet if they drop down the ranks of TriapAdvisor-recommended sites.

And it's no wonder they feel besieged. As anyone who's perused the one-star reviews on Yelp knows, it can get pretty brutal out there — just take Fenway Park as an example.

The park has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, but the historic baseball stadium has its haters, too. Just to get a sense of the tone, here's a sample from three bottom-of-the-barrel reviews:

"This place earns one star for still being able to stand up. This old, rotting park has numerous obstructions to viewing a game. Come on people, don't give it five stars just because it hosts the Red Sox, who one must admit are perennial losers."

"Going back to Fenway after growing up with the park is sort of like meeting my dead grandfather if Wal-Mart exhumed his corpse and turned it into a cyborg greeter. It's amazing how what was once the best park in the majors is now an absolute cesspool of forced promos and moronic 'fans.'"

"History, Schmistory. Fenway is an outdated dump of a park. People pay ridiculous amounts of money to sit behind a POLE."

Take that over-the-top approach and apply it to the neighborhood mom-and-pop coffee shop, and you can see why some business owners crave legal recourse.

If the Kennedy co-sponsored bill passes congress, it would ensure companies can still take legal action against individuals who post false and defamatory reviews.

The Consumer Review Fairness Act would void any non-disparagement clauses in consumer contracts if they restrict consumers from publicly reviewing products or businesses accurately, and would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to take action against businesses that insert these provisions into their contracts, Kennedy says.

According to the AP, a Senate version of the legislation passed last year, and was "similar but not identical to the House bill, so the two will have to be reconciled before it heads to the president’s desk."

You can read more in The Washington Post here.

Image via Congressman Joe Kennedy III