With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/526329
* 54 BCBusiness july 2015 force Yelp to disclose the identity of neg- ative posters, claiming that many busi- nesses are being targeted by malicious competitors or ex-employees. One recent case went to the Virginia Supreme Court. Hadeed Carpet Cleaning was suing to obtain the names of negative reviewers, believing they were in fact competitors. In April the Virginia court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction in the case. Yelp proclaimed the decision "an important win," despite the fact that the court did not actually rule on the business's right to know the identities of its critics. Instead, the court said the case should have been filed in Yelp's home state of California. While Yelp protects the anonymity of users, spokesperson Hafford says the site counsels transparency. "We encourage users to sign up with their real first name, last initial, email address and profile pic- ture," Hafford says. "Yelp has always been a community review site, not a drive-by one, and having full user profiles helps others determine if they might agree with a particular reviewer's taste." Claims of abuse on the Yelp platform aren't just limited to patrons. One Surrey- based Yelper who goes by the name "A Customer T." claims she was threatened with a $50,000 lawsuit by a Surrey legal firm after posting a negative review. "My reviews are an accurate and true account of my experi- ences," she says. "I feel that this is why people use reviews or come to Yelp. They want to hear about people's experiences." Many of T.'s reviews are five-star raves, but she is also free with the one-star ratings. One such pan went to a legal firm T. consulted while pursuing a claim. The firm later dropped her case and, feel- ing they had reneged on an agreement, she left a review suggesting that customers should avoid them. Although Yelp does not disclose the iden- tities of its posters, the firm was evidently able to identify her based on the details she revealed in the review. Two days later she received a letter from the firm alleging defamation. "They told me my state- ments were false, and that my review has apparently cost them over $50,000 in clients for future business. They told me that if I don't delete the review and if I ever leave another review they have been told to take legal action and that I would be responsible for all the costs." T. says she contacted Yelp and they were supportive. "They told me they would help me in my case and that they don't support legal threats or harassment," T. says. But she was still concerned enough to delete her review. After writing about her experi- ence in a Yelp forum, T. says she heard from many others who have had similar experiences with other businesses. "This company only has positive reviews on their pages, which is why I chose them," she says. "I wonder if they had legally threatened anyone else?" I n the U.S. at least, lawmakers are moving to protect a consumer's right to complain. Last year California passed legislation widely known as the Yelp Bill, protecting the right to post bad reviews online without penalties. It fol- lowed cases in which customers were hit with fines as the result of negative online reviews that, according to the businesses, contravened clauses in signed customer agree- ments. The California law makes such contracts illegal, and a similar bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress last fall. Legal questions aside, there is also the question of Yelp's quality control. Everybody's got an opinion, and everybody's opinion is what makes up a restaurant's aggregate rating. Is that always fair?