Comments on: When Do Review Websites Commit Extortion?–Icon Health v. ConsumerAffairs https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/07/when-do-review-websites-commit-extortion-icon-health-v-consumeraffairs.htm Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:31:00 +0000 hourly 1 By: Eric Goldman https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/07/when-do-review-websites-commit-extortion-icon-health-v-consumeraffairs.htm#comment-1887 Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:31:00 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=17437#comment-1887 In reply to Jason Farnon.

You’re thinking of People v. Bollaert, 248 Cal. App. 4th 699 (2016).

]]> By: Jason Farnon https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/07/when-do-review-websites-commit-extortion-icon-health-v-consumeraffairs.htm#comment-1886 Mon, 17 Jul 2017 23:44:00 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=17437#comment-1886 “Overall, the review-sites-as-extorters argument has generally fared quite poorly over the years”

don’t i remember some extortion charges prevailing in some of the revenge porn website cases? i don’t see a material difference from the case discussed in this post. i thought perhaps the key difference was the revenge porn cases were criminal extortion, so bypassing CDA, whereas this is i suppose a private action against ConsumerAffairs. but from what you’ve quoted of the court CDA was not the issue.

]]> By: David S. Gingras https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2017/07/when-do-review-websites-commit-extortion-icon-health-v-consumeraffairs.htm#comment-1885 Fri, 14 Jul 2017 23:13:00 +0000 http://blog.ericgoldman.org/?p=17437#comment-1885 Bizarre ruling, but them winds ‘o change keep blowin’, so who knows?

Two things to add:

1.) I heard somewhere that after the Nemet Chevrolet case in 2009, ConsumerAffairs was sold to new owners who completely changed the business practices (and not in a good way). If the site changed the way it operates, then it could make sense for the Utah court to reach a different result than the 4th Circuit did back in 2009.

2.) I have looked at CA rarely in the past and was extremely un-impressed with site (because their paid program makes bad companies look unfairly good). I also had a case a few years ago in which I served a subpoena for information on CA which they blew off (they did not even send an objection, or any other response).

Kind of makes me wonder about their claim to have nearly 100 staff members: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/about/staff/

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