If passed, House Bill (HB)1664 would classify those actions as Class B misdemeanors under the Tennessee Code. The maximum penalties for a Class B misdemeanor conviction in Tennessee are fines of up to $500, as much as 6 months in jail, or both.
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Like the author, I don't pay a whole lot of attention if there's only a small percentage of bad reviews. Shit happens, people have bad days, and there's always a few people that nitpick something to death.
The entertainment value can be fun though - I saw one once where a guy gave a 1 star review because the guy that waited on him was wearing overalls, which apparently isn't 'professional dress' for somebody working in a hardware store. Seriously, the entire review was about the man's attire - not a word about the service, store or product purchased.
Hmmm. I can see this turning into a giant mess if it passes. Who gets to decide if a review is "factually false"? I know - I've got a great idea - maybe they can use the genius's at Factcheck.org. Yeah - a big old rat's nest of lawyers will be the ONLY people who benefit from this if it passes.
ReplyDeleteSame issues as Dave has. This could be a mess. And hard to enforce (eg, ignored): who's going to go after 500 bad faith posters in the other 49 states? Individually?
ReplyDeleteWe've got laws about libel, slander, false advertising, etc. Seems like those apply, especially to competitors. This sounds like another attempt to make a law because butthurt, not because the law will really affect much. We need fewer laws, not more.
I don't give reviews. If I didn't like the place I still tip my waiter but I just don't go back.
ReplyDeleteDaryl
Has this person never heard of the first amendment? I realize the Democrats are trying to remove the entire bill of rights but they haven’t managed yet,
ReplyDeleteSooner or later, everything will either be mandatory or prohibited.
DeleteOne good thing about reviews on the 'net. Seems some of the large chain stores (Ross) actually read customer reviews and if written just the right way you can sometimes benefit from your post. For example I bought my wife a new purse for Christmas and wouldn't you know, less than a month later the zipper is busted. This is well within the store's return policy dates, and I kept the receipt, so we go back to the store to return it, and the bitch at the returns desk looks at it and says "well it's been used, so we can't accept it as a return. I asked her how else would we know the zipper didn't work so well; she just shrugged. So knowing what I was dealing with I asked to speak to the store manager. She responds that SHE IS the manager.
ReplyDeleteMy next move was to post a highly negative (but truthful) review on Yelp with only 1 star (because you can't post without at least 1 star).
It took about 3 days, but I get a call out of the blue from Ross's corp office inviting us to come back for a refund. Guess they're sensitive to what's posted on the 'net!