![]() ![]() Making a deliberately false statement can indeed leave a reviewer open to a libel suit, Levy added, but there’s “a difference between expressing a negative opinion and a statement of fact.”Īs for the facts, the ones around the Medialink router are a little murky. They don’t always result in lawsuits, but the threat alone is significantly cheaper - hundreds of dollars as opposed to potentially thousands - and often works. We spoke with Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with Public Citizen, who told Consumerist that instances like T.’s are increasingly commonplace. Thus, the SLAPP manages to shut down dissent or negative criticism without actually having to follow through on taking anyone to court. Because most individuals do not have the resources - both time and money - to dedicate to fighting off a lawsuit from a business, they’ll respond to legal threats like the one T. This kind of lawsuit is so common now as to have a fancy acronym: SLAPP, a strategic lawsuit against public participation. In other words, the letter basically says “if you don’t stop saying mean things about us forever, we will sue you.” immediately delete his review, but also told him that to avoid a lawsuit, he would need to “agree to never purchase any Mediabridge or Medialink product” and also agree “to never publicly comment in any online forum, directly or indirectly through others,” about the company’s products. The company, via its lawyer, not only demanded that T. received zeroed in on two of his assertions: that the product was identical to another product, and that it was “very likely” that Medialink was paying for reviews. posted the letter to Reddit looking for legal advice, and in the days since the company’s product pages have become completely overwhelmed by the internet pitchfork brigade.Ī few key questions sit at the heart of the maelstrom: Why is the company suing? Do they have a legal leg to stand on? And what are they hoping to gain? Not sure of whether to agree to these demands and edit or remove his review, T. a cease-and-desist letter, immediately demanding he take down his negative review or face a libel lawsuit. A lawyer representing Mediabridge Products, LLC (the same company as Medialink) sent T. This week, almost eight months later, the company struck back. also found a discussion online indicating that the guts of the Medialink router in question were the same as a less expensive router from a Chinese company, Tenda.Īnd so he wrote a one-star review of the Medialink product on Amazon, telling would-be buyers of his findings and suggesting that some of the five-star product reviews may be less than legitimate. Indeed, scouring the internet this week shows that the only high-traffic site mentioning the Medialink products at all is a Digital Trends list from June 2013 - and in a fit of circular logic, it immediately mentions the “5000 customer reviews on Amazon” as evidence of how great the router is. “I searched for reviews on other tech sites, and I couldn’t find a single reputable site that reviewed this router,” he said, “Which I thought was odd for such an obviously well-received router.” So he took the sensible step of looking for reviews of the product outside of Amazon. Even products I love never have glowing reviews like this one,” T. “Everything was a little too good to be true. “I was surprised to see two Medialink routers at the top of both lists,” he said, “a company I’ve never heard of I’ve bought and recommended plenty of routers over the years.”Īt first he thought it sounded like a great product - cheap, efficient, and with glowing reviews. Medialink’s routers were front and center as he browsed. “I did what I always do,” he told Consumerist, which is to search for wireless routers on Amazon, and then filter by reviews and top sellers. was helping a friend shop for a new router. This all began back in September 2013, when T. Eight months after a Florida man panned a product online, the company’s lawyer delivered a fresh new legal threat to his doorstep - retract the review, or face a libel suit. ![]() For one man, though, the process just got a whole lot more interesting (in the bad way). ![]() Writing a product review on Amazon is usually a pretty mundane process: Pick a star rating, leave a few words, hit “submit,” and immediately forget about it. UPDATE: While neither Medialink nor its lawyer have responded to our request for comment on this story, the company has posted a lengthy note on its Facebook page in which explains the motives behind the cease-and-desist letter and says that its Amazon seller account has been suspended. ![]()
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