Texas.
I reviewed a real estate agents Facebook page... The business. I was told I was committing libel because the agent represented the buyers and not me, the seller. The agent got 3 percent of the commission and our agent got the other 3 percent. Do I have to be a direct customer to review an agent who was abusive to me and my agent?
You can review whomever and whatever you want, and the reviews can be negative. Where you are allowed to place your reviews, however, can be limited by an owner of a website. Because the real estate agent controls what is published on his Facebook page, he can remove the comments posted to his site.
That said, writing a negative review and writing a libelous review are two very different things.
Negative reviews can include personal opinions and facts based on personal experience. What makes a negative review
defamatory will be the inclusion in the review of false statements of fact or statements that imply false facts, if these falsehoods cause injury to a person or to an entity's reputation.
Negative reviews often become defamatory through the use of exaggerations or embellishments or generalizations. These exaggerations and embellishments and generalizations are often used by writers of negative reviews to emphasize or expand on their negative feelings or their negative experiences, to make more of an impact on the reader.
When writing about a professional person or a business, though, you have to be extremely careful what you write. Reputations are valuable and harming a reputation, especially a professional reputation, can lead to a costly lawsuit filed against you. Just your use of the word "abusive" in your post here indicates to me that your review might not have been written with the care needed.
