Worried about a lawsuit over your comments? A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit against ConsumerAffairs.com after users posted un-friendly comments about a car dealership on the site.
A federal court has thrown out a defamation lawsuit against the site ConsumerAffairs.com, which posts people’s complaints about retailers.
Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of Alexandria, Va., ruled that the site is protected from suit based on user comments under the federal Communications Decency Act.
The case involved a franchise of car dealers–Nemet Chevrolet of Jamaica, N.Y., and Thomas Nemet, the proprietor of Nemet Motors–who sued the Fairfax, Va.-based site in March after users complained about the dealerships.
Even though websites are protected (hopefully) form lawsuits spurred by user comments, the users themselves are still subject to lawsuits.