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This bill — the Consumer Review Freedom Act — was designed to keep businesses from contractually barring their customers from reviewing them online (think sites like Yelp and it's competitors). These are often called \"gag clauses\" or “anti-review clauses” and mostly come into play against customers who write bad reviews.

These are legal tools (often in the fine print of the terms of service) that businesses use to protect their online reputation — often unbeknownst to the customer. Although courts tend to side with consumers when these cases make it into courts, this bill would add protections for customers/reviewers by making the clauses flat-out illegal and voiding them immediately.

If passed, the bill will grant authority to enforce the law and prosecute deceptive or unfair contracts to individual states and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC will also be responsible for business outreach and support to help companies meet the new guidelines.

","official_title":"A bill to prohibit the use of certain clauses in form contracts that restrict the ability of a consumer to communicate regarding the goods or services offered in interstate commerce that were the subject of the contract, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Consumer Review Freedom Act of 2015","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Consumer Review Freedom Act of 2015\n\n(Sec. 2) This bill makes a provision of a form contract void from the inception if it: (1) prohibits or restricts an individual who is a party to such a contract from engaging in written, oral, or pictorial reviews, or other similar performance assessments or analyses of, including by electronic means, the goods, services, or conduct of a person that is also a party to the contract; (2) imposes penalties or fees against individuals who engage in such communications; or (3) transfers or requires the individual to transfer intellectual property rights in review or feedback content (with the exception of a nonexclusive license to use the content) in any otherwise lawful communications about such person or the goods or services provided by such person.\n\nA \"form contract\" is a contract with standardized terms: (1) used by a person in the course of selling or leasing the person's goods or services, and (2) imposed on an individual without a meaningful oppo...","summarized":true,"cost":0,"cost_commentary":"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expects costs from this measure to be negligible.","impact":"People who write reviews on sites like Yelp, anyone who use and/or trusts other’s Yelp reviews, companies that already (or plan to) include anti-negative review clauses in their contracts, Yelp and other review sites, and the Federal Trade Commission.","argument_for":"Customers have a right to publish their honest feedback — and to evaluate companies based on the uncensored reviews of other consumers.","argument_against":"Negative online reviews can ruin a company’s reputation — even if they're not true. 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Here you can find bills encompassing US monetary policy, the US Federal Budget, overall government spending, appropriations and how we handle the US federal debt and state finances. ","page_title":"Legislation related to the US Economy, monetary policy, the federal budget and government spending - Vote on Bills, Stay informed, Hold Your Reps Accountable","icons":{"black":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/economy/black_economy-1429042041.svg","grey":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/economy/grey_economy-1429042041.svg","white":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/economy/white_economy-1429042041.svg"},"cover_image_url":null,"is_following":false},{"id":"sports-and-recreation","name":"Sports & Recreation","slug":"sports-and-recreation","description":"US Congressional Legislation related to Sports and Recreation, including: the Olympic Games, Professional Sports (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, etc.), School Athletics and sports and recreation activities.","page_title":"Sports and Recreation Federal Legislation - Vote on Bills, Stay informed, Hold Your Reps Accountable","icons":{"black":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/sports-and-recreation/black_sports-and-recreation-1429042045.svg","grey":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/sports-and-recreation/grey_sports-and-recreation-1429042045.svg","white":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/sports-and-recreation/white_sports-and-recreation-1429042045.svg"},"cover_image_url":null,"is_following":false}],"users":[{"name":"John","vote_count":83,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/jZBML2rW/large_jzbml2rw-1452027317.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/jZBML2rW/small_jzbml2rw-1452027317.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/jZBML2rW/tiny_jzbml2rw-1452027317.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/jZBML2rW/following","followers":"/api/users/jZBML2rW/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":14,"is_following":null,"influence_score":10,"influence_level":10,"follower_count":0,"following_count":3,"position_count":9,"id":"jZBML2rW","partner_id":null}],"bill_position":{"flagged":false,"id":"a7ab4bc0-b0ed-431d-9e36-a8b6008bb0bc","argument_for":"I know customers can get out of hand with bad reviews sometimes, but companies are the side of the relationship that already have most of the power in the form of company policies, early termination fees etc.. If they had the power to sue customers as well, they would soon begin to abuse that power.","argument_against":null,"show_argument_for":true,"show_argument_against":false,"upvote_count":0,"upvotes_for_count":0,"upvotes_against_count":null,"has_upvoted":false,"endorsement_count":0,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/positions/a7ab4bc0-b0ed-431d-9e36-a8b6008bb0bc"},"body":"I know customers can get out of hand with bad reviews sometimes, but companies are the side of the relationship that already have most of the power in the form of company policies, early termination fees etc.. If they had the power to sue customers as well, they would soon begin to abuse that power.","stance":"yea","created_at":"2015-12-27T17:12:05.370Z","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/positions/a7ab4bc0-b0ed-431d-9e36-a8b6008bb0bc.png","note_color":null,"note_text":null,"bill_id":"s2044-114","user_id":"jZBML2rW","endorser_ids":[]}}

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Banning Companies From Suing Customers for Negative Reviews