Yelpholes Are -- Obviously -- Volunteers, Not Employees
The most recent assholes with their class action hands out were a bunch of Yelp reviewers who "claimed their contributions to the website constituted a employer-employee relationship," reports Katherine Porter at CourthouseNews.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed their class action suit.
Seeborg found the plaintiffs "use the term 'hired' to refer to a process by which any member of the public can sign up for an account on the Yelp website and submit reviews, and the term 'fired' to refer to having their accounts involuntarily closed, presumably for conduct that Yelp contends breached its terms of service agreement."But the reviewers' contributions to the site "at most would constitute acts of volunteerism," he wrote.
Based on the plaintiffs' "mere conclusory allegations" and their "rambling and invective-filled papers," Seeborg dismissed the suit.
He also denied their request for sanctions against Yelp.
Adrianos Facchetti, Yelp's attorney, said in an email that the action was a "frivolous lawsuit that should never have been filed."
Yoohoo, losing asshole -- uh, "loser pays" -- lawsuits, anyone?
via @overlawyered
I wonder what it is about Yelp in particular that seems to attract so many ambulance chasers. First, Yelp reviewers are getting sued for negative reviews, and now this.
Cousin Dave at August 18, 2015 7:04 AM
Hey all commenters here. Let's say we start a class action lawsuit against Amy for "contributing" to her blog!
I want to get paid for insulting Patrick, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind the money for responding in kind. And bonus pay for swear word insults.
Just kidding Amy, just kidding! (or am I?)
charles at August 18, 2015 8:22 AM
And here I thought insulting Patrick was its own reward.
Conan the Grammarian at August 18, 2015 8:57 AM
Let's say we start a class action lawsuit against Amy for "contributing" to her blog!
I always laugh when someone threatens to sue me. Yeah, you could sue me or any other newspaper writer/mid-list author -- or you could sue that homeless dude over there and make out really big.
Amy Alkon at August 18, 2015 9:04 AM
But, Amy, what if they do a Tom Cruise Special, and sue you in England ??? (grin)
Keith Glass at August 18, 2015 9:23 AM
It reminds me of the dumb blogger who wrote for Arianna Huffington for years and then filed a class action lawsuit for $105,000,000 because he wasn't paid. Same principle.
Kevin at August 18, 2015 9:53 AM
His problem was that Arianna got paid.
He argued that his contributions to her blog helped make it valuable enough that she could later sell it for big bucks.
Conan the Grammarian at August 18, 2015 9:58 AM
The problem with "Loser Pays" is that it would make it almost impossible for an average working person to sue a big company. Most lawsuits are not ludicrous one way or the other, they tend to be balanced with evidence on both sides. That said, there should definitely be penalties for patently frivoluos suits with no reasonable merit.
clinky at August 18, 2015 11:24 PM
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