Want to do a website where people can post complaints.

[rickj]

I'm in the US. Ohio.

I want to do a forum where people can complain about products and services. I will insist on professionalism and no "name calling" but I'm concerned about whether I can be held liable by companies who are complained about.

Do I need to worry about this? Should I consider having my partner in the U.K. setting up the hosting and "ownership" of the site?

What things can I do to protect myself?

Thank you!

 

[The Occultist]

Yes, you can and would be held liable.

 

[Quaere]

These are called "sucks sites". There are tons of them. People usually buy a domain name that includes the business they want to complain about, followed by the word "sucks".

Examples: Bestbuysucks.com Disney-sucks.com Retail-sucks.com Peta-sucks.com

Just google ... sucks sites ....and you will find all of the info you need.

 

[racer72]

FYI, the owner of Paypalsucks.com was just successfully sued for $200,000. Can you afford to take that kind of hit if someone posts something that you can be held liable for?

 

[rickj]

The above is not what I want to do. Sorry for not clarifying.

It will be a forum not unlike this one except that the board names would be would be product and service types, like
Appliances,
Mortgages,
Insurance,
Vehicles,
etc.

Can someone point me to legal references that speak of both the website owner and the poster's potential liability for providing a forum of this nature?

 

[acmb05]

The above is not what I want to do. Sorry for not clarifying.

It will be a forum not unlike this one except that the board names would be would be product and service types, like
Appliances,
Mortgages,
Insurance,
Vehicles,
etc.

Can someone point me to legal references that speak of both the website owner and the poster's potential liability for providing a forum of this nature?

I would no think there would be any liability for having a forum where people can post problems with different companies. Go to a site called ripoffreport.com and you can get a good idea of what a forum like this consists of. This is a very popular site for finding all kinds of problems people have had with different companies and products.

 

[rickj]

ripoffreport.com is a bad example. The owner of that site is being sued left and right for the way he does things. His site is not a forum. He posts the material that is submitted himself, then takes it a step further and contacts the companies to try to get money from them. He's been sued for extortion, defamation, etc.

I want to be professional about the whole thing and even take steps to be sure people are not just bashing companies or products.

I don't have all the details yet, but I'm prepared to work hard to be sure it's not a "come here to slam so and so" site.

 

[Quaere]

FYI, the owner of Paypalsucks.com was just successfully sued for $200,000.

I can't find any info on this Racer, can you give us a link?