VA Court: Yelp Doesn’t Have To Reveal Identities Of Anonymous Reviewers
The Virginia Supreme Court has issued a ruling that Yelp is not compelled to reveal the identities of seven anonymous online reviewers. The ruling came, however, on procedural grounds and not on the basis of the First Amendment, which had been at the center of the case. The case is Yelp, Inc. v. Hadeed Carpet […]
The Virginia Supreme Court has issued a ruling that Yelp is not compelled to reveal the identities of seven anonymous online reviewers. The ruling came, however, on procedural grounds and not on the basis of the First Amendment, which had been at the center of the case.
The case is Yelp, Inc. v. Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. To briefly review: Hadeed received critical reviews on Yelp that he neither liked nor believed were generated by actual customers. Hadeed sued to force Yelp to reveal the identities of the individuals in question — presumably so he could go after them for defamation.
Yelp refused to disclose their identities but eventually the Virginia Court of Appeal granted Hadeed’s lawyer’s motion to compel. Yelp and Public Citizen appealed on procedural and First Amendment grounds.
The Virginia Supreme Court’s opinion overturning the appellate court’s decision is highly technical and tedious. But you can read it below (preferably just before bedtime). Essentially it says that the lower court didn’t have subpena jurisdiction to compel Yelp to reveal the identities of the reviewers. It doesn’t touch the First Amendment issue.
Yelp and Public Citizen had argued that the First Amendment places a significant burden on plaintiffs to justify disclosure of an anonymous online speaker’s identity. Hadeed almost certainly failed to meet that test by simply offering sworn statements to the lower court in support of his original motion to compel.
Hadeed is now free to hire a lawyer in California, where Yelp is based, and seek to compel the identities of the reviewers. However the First Amendment will offer a higher bar in California than it did in Virginia, which is a weak outlier in terms of protections for anonymous speech online.
Here’s the Virginia Supreme Court’s full option.
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