Hospitality industry stakeholders who host sites for online reviews or rely on review sites such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Urban Spoon, or Oyster, may take comfort in the recent Ninth Circuit decision regarding the liability of the publishers of those reviews. See Kimzey v. Yelp! Inc., No. 2:13-cv-01734 (U.S.D.C. Wash. Sept. 12, 2016). But, there is an argument to be made that the protections afforded under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) may be wearing thin. As the industry looks for more ways to leverage data harvested from online reviews, it is slipping out from the protective umbrella afforded to “passive hosts” of user generated content.
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About the Editor
Greg Duff founded and chairs Foster Garvey’s national Hospitality, Travel & Tourism group. His practice largely focuses on operations-oriented matters faced by hospitality industry members, including sales and marketing, distribution and e-commerce, procurement and technology. Greg also serves as counsel and legal advisor to many of the hospitality industry’s associations and trade groups, including AH&LA, HFTP and HSMAI.
His popular weekly digest, Online Travel Update, offers a global perspective of key trends and issues at the intersection of the hospitality, online travel and technology arenas. Since 2019, Greg has been recognized among JD Supra’s Top Authors in its annual Readers’ Choice Awards for Airlines/Aviation, Transportation and Artificial Intelligence, including being named the content platform’s #1 Author for Transportation in 2021.
