Judge Finds Company Can Force Amazon To Identify Anonymous Reviewers

Amazon and Craigslist may be forced to reveal the identities of users leaving negative reviews against a company, after a federal judge granted nutritional supplement firm Ubervita’s requests to uncover who was leaving “phony negative” reviews of its products online. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman found that the company could issue subpoenas to Amazon and Craigslist seeking, “John Doe defendants’ identities, including their names, addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, IP addresses, Web hosts, credit card information, bank account information, and any other identifying information.”