News

Bogus Online Reviews face EU Ban
Pincet Masons international law firm, out-law.com, 2/15/07

Business people who write fake reviews of their own products will fall foul of new European laws in 2008. Laws banning businesses from misleading consumers will bar the act, protecting consumers who increasingly rely on online reviews.

Trade Association Proposed to Represent Ratings Websites
Sarah Colombo, USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review, 5/10/2007

An online entrepreneur wants publishers of rating and review websites to band together to fight legal action against their sites.

Opinion Poll Shows 8 out of 10 US Shoppers Put More Trust in Brands that Offer Customer Reviews
Bazaarvoice Inc, 7/23/07

Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, and Vizu Corporation, the company democratizing market research, today announced a benchmark survey on current attitudes towards customer ratings and reviews. Results show that approximately 80 percent of US shoppers place more trust in brands that offer customer ratings and reviews.

Online Reviews Influence Purchasing Decisions
Deloitte Consumer Products Group, 10/01/07

Deloitte Study show 2/3 of consumers check online rating, and 80% of those user say reviews affect purchase decisions.

Online Consumer-Generated Reviews Have Significant Impact on Offline Purchase Behavior
comScore Inc, 11/29/07

A study conducted by comScore and The Kelsey Group reveals that consumers will pay significantly more for local services that have positive ratings online.

User Ratings Top Consumers' Online Wish Lists
Kerry Bodine, Ross Popoff-Walker, Forrester Research, 2/06/08

Forrester Research asked more than 5,000 consumers to tell them what Web site content and functionality they'd most like to see. User ratings and reviews topped the list, with 64 percent of consumers requesting the function.

Consumers Turn to Online Ratings and Reviews, as Sites Respond to Concerns
Rating and Review Professional Association, 2/28/08

As online ratings become more important to the success of products and services, critics charge that online rating systems are unfair. To address criticisms, operators of more than a dozen rating and review websites have banded together into a new organization, the Rating and Review Professional Association. The new group will educate businesses, consumers and the press about the online review business, and encourage best practices among its members.

ApartmentRatings.com Among Top 50 Real Estate Sites
International Listings, 3/4/08

RARPA member ApartmentRatings.com was listed among the top 50 real estate websites in the world by International Listings.

Experts See Dim Future For Laws Against Anonymous Comments
Wendy Davis, Media Post, 3/14/08

Civil liberties advocates say that such legislation, no matter how well-intentioned, violates First Amendment rights to free speech.

Consumer Complaint Site Defeats Lawsuit By Unhappy Vendor
Eric Goldman, Technology & Marketing Law Blog, 6/25/08

In a textbook application of 47 USC 230, court dismisses all charges against ConsumerAffairs.com.

Car Dealer Can't Sue Ratings Website for Defamation
Lawyers USA, 8/11/08

In what is now becoming routine, a US District Court upheld the protections provided under 47 USC 230 and dismissed a lawsuit against a consumer rating and review website.

Venture Firm Subpoenas Records from Review Site
Matt Marshall, Venture Beat, 8/12/08

Venture firm EDF Ventures, in an apparent attempt to quash negative reviews on VC rating website TheFunded.com, has subpoenaed records relating to the negative posts. TheFunded has stated that the company does not retain identifying informatin on reveiwers.

Google Denied Attorney's Fees in Section 230 Dismissal
Eric Goldman, Technology & Marketing Law Blog, 8/12/08

Google was denied attorney fees when a lawsuit against the company was dismissed under 47 USC 230. The denial of attorney's fees was based on a technicality and reversed an award by a lower court. The initial award of attorney's fees reflects the courts' increasing impatience with frivolous lawsuits against website operators.

Wikipedia Defamation Lawsuit Dismissed under Section 230
John Timmer, ArsTechnica, 8/13/08

A New Jersey Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit against Wikipedia, re-affirming the website operator's immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Bay Area newspaper Accuses Yelp of Accepting Payoffs
Kathleen Richards, East Bay Express, 2/18/09

Business owners claim that Yelp advertising sales reps offered to remove negative reviews in exchange for ad purchases.

Consumers Rely on Ratings, Reviews and Recommendations During Recession
eMarketingandCommerce.com (eM+C), 2/26/09

A Jupiter Research study shows forty-eight percent of online shoppers plan to spend less this year, but 61 percent are positively influenced by online shopping resources such as ratings and reviews.

Doctors attempt to Gag Patient's Ratings
Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press, 3/3/09

A North Carolina consulting firm is providing doctors with a standardized waiver agreement. Patients who sign agree not to post online comments about the doctor, "his expertise and/or treatment."

John Swapceinski, co-founder of RateMDs.com, said that in recent months, six doctors have asked him to remove negative online comments based on patients' signed waivers. He has refused.

"They're basically forcing the patients to choose between health care and their First Amendment rights, and I really find that repulsive," Swapceinski said.

Chicago Businesses add to Yelp Allegations
Monica Eng, Chicago Tribune, 3/9/09

Chicago business owners add to claims that Yelp ad sales reps offer to move reviews in exchange for ad purchases.

Lawyers try to Prevent avvo.com from using Public Information
Kim Hart, Washington Post, 3/9/09

The D.C. Bar Association is attempting to block avvo.com from using publicly available information on their site, claiming that information such as name, address, and practice areas is protected by copyright law.

MySpace adds Business Ratings
Evan Hessel, Forbes, 3/31/09

Gathering inspiration from the rise of popular local ratings site Yelp, MySpace announced that it is adding local business ratings tools to its social network.

Yelp will allow Businesses to Respond to Ratings
Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times, 4/11/09

Review site Yelp will allow business to post replies to ratings on the Yelp site.Many rating sites, such as RARPA memerrs RateMDs.com and Ratingz.net, have allowed responses to ratings for several years.

Surprise! Physicians Criticize Doctor Ratings Sites
iHealthBeat, 6/8/09

As more and more people are turning to online review sites, doctors are increasingly critical of the sites' accuracy and usefulness.

(See related News - Doctors Attempt to Gag Patient's Ratings)

'Lifestyle Lift' Settles Case of Fake Reviews
Claire Cain Miller, New York Times, 7/14/09

The company will pay $300,000 for publishing fake reviews of its products on popular rating sites.

TripAdvisor posts Warnings of Hotels Posting Fake Reviews
Melissa Trujillo, Associated Press, July 15, 2009

The travel site has begun posting warnings when suspicious rating activity leads them to believe the hotels are posting fake reviews on the TripAdvisor website.

Reviews on Websites Increase Traffic, Trust and Sales
Helen Leggatt, BizReport, 11/23/09

A new survey from RatePoint found that, of the 30% of online retailers who featured product reviews on their website, 43% experienced more sales and 28% said they had received more traffic.

Rating Sites Expose Medical Gag Orders
JoNel Aleccia, MSNBC, 1/13/10

As previous reported, some doctors have begun requiring contracts that prohibit patients from posting online reviews. But this may backfire on doctors, as review sites now list doctors that require these "medical gag orders."

New class action lawsuit targets Yelp
Caroline McCarthy, CNET, 2/24/10

The suit claims the Yelp is running a virtual extortion scheme in which Yelp sales reps solicite payments form businesses to hide or remove negative reviews. Similar charges were made against Yelp in February of 2009 by a Bay Area newspaper.

Professor Rating Site a Staple Among Students
Laura Beth Calcote, The Vanguard, 3/8/10

Survey shows that more than 75% of students use the vintage rating sate RateMyProfessors.com, first launched in 1999.

Business Owners Realize Online Reviews can Make or Break Them
Star-Ledger, 3/25/10

Online review communities now have a dramatic impact on the success of a business.

Yelp Changes Procedures in Wake of Lawsuit
Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times, 4/6/10

Stung by criticisms, and what some small business owners categorized as extortion, Yelp has implemented several changes in their procedures to increase transparency.

Leading Historian posts Malicious Reviews
BBC News, 4/24/10

Orlando Figes, a professor at London's Birkbeck College, has admitted posting a string of positive reviews of his own work, and negative reviews of other author's books. The Figes incident illustrates one of the dangers of online reviews. Many online review sites use a variety of filters to attempt to screen out ratings spam.