Obama Signs Bills Barring Clauses That Gag Consumer Reviews and Online Ticket Scalping

A bill that would ban clauses that stifle negative online consumer reviews of a company's product or service (HR-5111) and another bill (S-3183) prohibiting the mass online purchase of events tickets, which are resold at higher prices, were signed into law Wednesday by President Barack Obama. The Consumer Review Fairness Act now prohibits gag or non-disparagement clauses within a company's terms of service, which have been used to silence bad reviews of goods, services or conduct (see 1606210061 and 1511040028). Consumers Union Senior Policy Counsel George Slover said in a statement "businesses should not be able to manipulate consumer feedback so that only glowing reviews see the light of day. If a business can't or won't deliver, it should have to answer in the marketplace." The other new law, the Better Online Ticket Sales (Bots) Act, bans use of software that circumvents a ticketing system's control measures and scoops up massive amounts of an events' tickets before the public has the chance to buy them. Ticket sellers and other supporters of the law said the tickets are then resold at exorbitant prices (see 1612010018).