Can I Hire a Lawyer to Help Remove Negative Amazon Reviews? featured image

Can I Hire a Lawyer to Help Remove Negative Amazon Reviews?

by John DiGiacomo

Partner

Internet Law

Yes, you can hire an Amazon Seller attorney or Amazon Seller Law Firm to help remove negative Amazon reviews. Amazon negative reviews can have a significant impact on your Amazon Seller Account. So, there are good reasons to make every effort to remove such reviews. That being said, there are several difficulties in obtaining the removal of negative reviews.

The first difficulty is identifying the person, business, or group that has posted the negative reviews. If that entity is known, then an Amazon Seller Law Firm — like Revision Legal — can be cost-efficient in efforts to obtain the removal of the negative review. Otherwise, extended efforts will be needed to uncover the identity of the negative reviewer (which can be time-consuming and, thus, costly in terms of legal fees).

The second difficulty in seeking to remove negative reviews is whether there are sufficient legal grounds to seek removal. Although it is never “easy” to have a negative review removed, the easiest reviews to remove are ones that contain false statements, misleading information, and other types of statements that could be legally deemed defamatory. A defamatory statement is one that is false, published, and causes injury or damage to the person or business that is the target of the statement. Some types of false statements are automatically defamatory. These are called statements that are per se defamatory. An example is a statement that states that a person or business has committed a crime. For example, an Amazon review that says something like “Seller is a crook and stole my money” is per se defamation (unless the statement is true). However, theft is a crime that involves intent — the purposeful mental state of intending to take someone’s money or property. Disputes over payment, receipt of products, and refunds almost never rise to the level of criminal intent. Thus, a statement like “Seller stole my money” is likely automatically defamatory. These kinds of reviews are more easily removed.

An Amazon seller attorney can help remove these types of reviews. If the person’s identity is known, a polite attorney letter can be sent to the negative reviewer demanding the removal of the review and explaining the legal consequences of posting false and defamatory reviews. Ultimately, defamation litigation can be started wherein an initial task would be to ask the judge assigned to the case to order the removal of the negative Amazon review.

Another type of Amazon seller review that is somewhat “easy” to remove are those containing inappropriate language, threats, abuse, personal attacks, disclosure of personal information, and/or encouragement of illegal activity. These sorts of reviews are prohibited by Amazon’s terms of service and other policies. Again, an Amazon seller attorney can help remove these types of reviews. In these cases, the polite attorney letter can be sent both to the negative reviewer and to Amazon’s customer service and legal teams.

By contrast, Amazon reviews that are factual or opinions are much more difficult to remove either through litigation or contacting Amazon’s customer service and legal teams. An example might be: “Seller has bad customer service.” Legally, “bad” is a value judgment and, as such, would likely be deemed an opinion in a court of law. If you are unsure, a consultation with an Amazon seller attorney can help evaluate your options.

Contact the Amazon Seller Attorneys at Revision Legal

For more information, contact the experienced Amazon Sellers Lawyers at Revision Legal. You can contact us through the form on this page or call (855) 473-8474.

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