Nothing in this document is intended to be legal advice.  It merely states the opinion of eCompliments and the applicable laws to potential situations.  YOU SHOULD CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY FOR LEGAL ADVICE.

Want to Sue eCompliments?

eCompliments is an online review forum which provides space for users to generate content and post their opinions & experiences about almost anything in the world.  In legal terms, eCompliments is an interactive computer service.  According to Section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."  47 U.S.C. §230(c)(1).

Because eCompliments is an interactive computer service, it cannot be held liable for the content a user posts regarding any other user.  If you are a profile owner and you have an issue with a user who has used eCompliments as its forum to post an opinion about you, you must take up your issues with them directly.  You cannot sue us for the content others post about you because we are not the ‘publisher’ or ‘speaker’ of that content. 

Please know that others have tried to sue similar sites for the content published by those sites’ users.  Every case but one, which was decided under a different legal reason not Section 230, had the same result.  The case was thrown out of court with the requirement that the plaintiff pay the interactive computer service’s court costs (including attorney’s fees) for defending the case.  In some instances, those attorney’s fees cost the plaintiff tens of thousands of dollars.  It really is in your best interest to strongly evaluate the likelihood of success in bringing suit against eCompliments for the content others have posted about you.  We will vigorously defend ourselves and upon winning judgment will seek to recoup the fees and costs spent defending ourselves.

Here are a number of cases that support our position:

• Batzel v. Smith, 333 F.3d 1018, 1027-28 (9th Cir. 2003) (recognizing, "Making interactive computer services and their users liable for the speech of third parties would severely restrict the information available on the Internet. Section 230 [of the CDA] therefore sought to prevent lawsuits from shutting down websites and other services on the Internet.")
• Doe v. America Online, Inc., 783 So.2d 1010 (Fl. 2001)
• Green v. America Online, 318 F.3d 465, 470 (3rd Cir. 2003) (noting that the CDA, "‘precludes courts from entertaining claims that would place a computer service provider in a publisher's role,' and therefore bars ‘lawsuits seeking to hold a service provider liable for its exercise of a publisher's traditional editorial functions - such as deciding whether to publish, withdraw, postpone, or alter content.'")
• Carafano v. Metrosplash.com, Inc., 339 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003)
• Schneider v. Amazon.com, Inc., 31 P.3d 37 (Wash.App. 2001)
• Doe v. GTE Corp., 347 F.3d 655 (7th Cir. 2003)
• Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997)
• Blumenthal v. Drudge, 992 F. Supp. 44 (D. D.C. 1998).
• Global Royalties, Ltd. v. Xcentric Ventures, L.L.C., 2007 WL 2949002 (D.Ariz. Oct. 10, 2007) (holding CDA barred claims against Ripoff Report based on statements posted by a third party user of the site)
• Whitney Info. Network, Inc. v. Xcentric Ventures, LLC, No. 2:04-cv-47-FtM-34SPC, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11632 (M.D.Fla. Feb. 15, 2008) (Ripoff Report granted summary judgment based on CDA protection).
• Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, L.L.C., --- F.3d ----, 2008 WL 879293, 08 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3857 (9th Cir. 2008).  (finding that because Roommates.com was liable for asking illegal questions under the Fair Housing Act, the court wouldn’t discuss immunity under Section 230 of the CDA).

Can I sue the User who posted the complaint against me?

We are not a law firm, so we can’t advise you on this matter.  What we can tell you is that there have been a number of cases in this area, which until recently held that users couldn’t sue other users.  (See Wong v. Tai Jing, 1-08-CV-129971, Superior Court for the State of California, Santa Clara County.)  This is an ever-evolving area of the law, so please seek the advice of your own competent legal counsel before you decide to pursue any action against any person.

If I decide to sue the User who posted the complaint against me, will you tell me who they are and give me their contact information?

Absolutely not.  In order for our open forum to exist, we strictly protect the personal information of all of our Users, including you.  We maintain a very strict privacy policy (which you can read here) and to give you that information would be in direct violation of that policy.

Someone posted content that violates the Site Use Agreement, will you remove it?

If a compliment, complaint or comment violates the Site Use Agreement then it requires removal from the site and we will do so.  A posting may be removed for clearly violating the Site Use Agreement. A “Report Abuse” button is on each profile page. Report the Abuse to us for evaluation.

I am being harassed by a user on your site. What should I do?

If you feel as though another user is using our site to harass you, use the “Report Abuse” feature of the site and we will investigate.  Upon investigation, you will be notified of the Company decision and the action taken.  While we cannot control other users, we will try to be reasonable and balance the free speech rights of other users with your rights not to be slanderously or maliciously attacked.  Any decision by us in this scenario is final.  There is no other recourse.

I don’t want my business listed on eCompliments?

The listings of business profiles we provide on our Site are gathered from public record.  We purchase some data from companies who compile this public information and resell it to other businesses.  Please contact your local yellow pages or telephone provider and have your name removed.  In doing so, you will see that your profile will be eventually removed from our site.  We are under no obligation to remove any information we receive from these sources.  Again, please address the issue with your local provider.

If another User created your profile then there is no mechanism for removal.  User generated content that complies with our Site Use Agreement is valid content and will not be removed from the site.  We cannot be liable for the content that other Users place on our site (see above for an explanation of Section 230 of the CDA).

The information on my business listing is wrong.

This is an easy fix.  Simply claim your profile and register for a free account.  This way you can control all of the information about your company contained on the profile.  Since we get most of our business listings from a public information compiler, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of all of the business listings on our site unless you claim your profile and keep it updated.