Bad Online Review Tanked Their Credit, Inspired Legislation

A Utah couple ordered desk toys for Christmas gifts in 2008, but they never arrived. Customer service complaints yielded nothing, so they posted about their negative experience to an online business review site and forgot about it. Four years later they received an email from the company saying they had violated a “non-disparagement” clause in the terms of service, and threatening a $3500 fine if they didn’t take the review down. When the couple refused, the fine went to a collector and their credit was ruined. It took a court case to restore it, but the publicity their problems received helped spur Congress to pass the Consumer Review Fairness Act that President Obama signed into law last month. It prohibits businesses from putting non-disparagement clauses into terms of service.