California Injury Lawyers Blog
You might want to think twice before posting that scathing review. Internet retailer Kleargear.com threatened to fine customer Jen Palmer $3,500 if she didn’t remove the criticism she had posted about the company on Ripoffreport.com. Palmer tried, but Ripoffreport.com told her she would have to pay $2,000 to remove the post, so she ignored the demand. Ripoffreport.com founder Ed Magedson said in a comment to ABAJournal.com that the site would never take down a consumer complaint, for any amount of money.
Although Kleargear did not sue to force Palmer and her husband to pay the $3,500 fine after its demand was ignored, it did report her as delinquent to credit agencies, which has made it impossible for the Utah couple to get loans. The couple has disputed the negative credit-report entry to no avail.
A Kleargear company spokesperson defended the charge in an e-mail as justified by the terms of use.TechCrunch and Techdirt provide the text of the anti-disparagement provision, which states in part: “In an effort to ensure fair and honest public feedback, and to prevent the publishing of libelous content in any form, your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts KlearGear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees.” There’s some question, however, whether the provision was in force in 2008 when Palmer posted the review.