Liabilities of real user review/commenting sites?

[projectv3]

I wasn't too sure where to ask this, but I was curious if anyone who has experience with local review directories, or any real user commenting/review sites could shed some wisdom on the liabilities related to it.

ie.

If i were to run a local niche directory (think the old 100k directory idea) allowing locals to comment and submit their experiences with a company, if a company were to get pissed about a negative comment/review how liable would I be for the user's submitted review/comment??

I mean I'm obviously not going to run a local lawyers directory because thats probably just asking for trouble lol. But what if it was for something like say dentists, or restaurants, and users leave real negative experience comments am I liable to a point where I'd have to remove them to avoid gettin sued etc.?

Any input on this would be awesome.

 

[tacoX]

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
Let's say you can get in some real trouble now. They only target the biggest guys and make examples of them - but the fines seem to be speeding tickets in comparison to the revenue numbers the big guys bring in.

 

[Sonny Forelli]

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
Let's say you can get in some real trouble now. They only target the biggest guys and make examples of them - but the fines seem to be speeding tickets in comparison to the revenue numbers the big guys bring in.

how is this in any way, shape or form related to his site that allows actual user reviews/ratings of businesses (I presume similar to yelp).

That's about 180 degrees from the revised FTC guidelines that govern endorsements of products on the marketer's site.

OP- take a look at Yelp.com's disclaimer and start there, obviously they're in this space.

 

[johu]

As a service provider, you're protected from liability of what your users may post on your website. See Crmxchange- Web site Forum Not Liable for User Comments and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[medicalhumor]

use the bad comments to make some cash. go to the businesses with bad listings and tell them you'll remove all the bad comments for a fee.

 

[projectv3]

thanks for the links will definitely check those out, thats exactly what i wanted to look more into since my goal is to build a reputable review/commenting community in a local service niche - which is why blackmailing bad reviews might not be a good idea, thanks for the suggestion tho lol

 

[megatabbers]

This site: http://www.ripoffreport.com has been up for some time and apparently never lost a lawsuit. You should check them out (perhaps even have a chat with the owner).

 

[DonDadda]

Does the FTC apply to non-US websites?

Then we could just set up our companies outside the US to run those Acai offers.