--- description: Yelp has begun to mark businesses that make legal threats against customers that post reviews on the site title: Yelp Is Now Marking Businesses That Sue Reviewers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Yelp Is Now Marking Businesses That Sue Reviewers by [Rosalie Chan](/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 25, 2016 9:54 PM CUT by [Rosalie Chan](/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 25, 2016 9:54 PM CUT Yelp has begun to mark businesses that make legal threats against customers that post reviews on the site. “Consumers have the right to share their opinions about their experiences with businesses, but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech rights,” Yelp [said on its blog](https://www.yelpblog.com/2016/07/protecting-free-speech-yelp-marking-businesses-sue-customers "undefined"). Earlier this year, [Prestigious Pets, a Dallas pet-sitting service, sued a couple](http://time.com/4231504/petsitter-sues-couple-negative-yelp-review/?iid=sr-link5 "undefined") who wrote a one-star review criticizing the business for damages of $200,000 to $1 million. The alert will appear on a company’s Yelp page and reads: “This business may be trying to abuse the legal system in an effort to stifle free speech, including issuing questionable legal threats against reviewers. As a reminder, reviewers who share their experiences have a First Amendment right to express their opinions on [Yelp](http://time.com/3611053/yelp-ceo/?iid=sr-link4 "undefined").” [Yelp](http://time.com/4002064/yelp-review-federal-agencies/?iid=sr-link1 "undefined") has placed the so-called Consumer Alert on Prestigious Pets’ [Yelp](http://time.com/2969709/yelp-google-antitrust/?iid=sr-link3 "undefined") page, as well as the pages of Superior Moving & Storage in Pompano Beach, FL and Nima Dayani, DDS in New York City. In addition, two bills for protecting consumer speech have been introduced in Congress: the [“Right to Yelp Bill](https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/5111 "undefined"),” also known as the Consumer Review Fairness Act, and the [SPEAK FREE Act.](https://www.yelpblog.com/2016/06/yelp-fights-free-speech-house-representatives "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4422796/yelp-consumer-alert-lawsuit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4422796/yelp-consumer-alert-lawsuit/"},"headline":"Yelp Is Now Marking Businesses That Sue Reviewers","datePublished":"2016-07-25T21:54:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:50:18.061Z","description":"After several businesses have sued consumers","url":"https://time.com/4422796/yelp-consumer-alert-lawsuit/","keywords":["Tech","Food & Drink","Retail","apps","Brands","Reviews","legal","Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rosalie Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4422796/yelp-consumer-alert-lawsuit/","name":"Yelp Is Now Marking Businesses That Sue Reviewers"}}]}] ```