Update 5/8/2014 19:44 CT: On Thursday, Mediabridge Products posted an official statement about this incident to its Facebook page, clarifying its position and saying that Amazon has revoked its selling privileges. However, Mediabridge subsequently deleted the statement and its entire Facebook presence after receiving negative comments.
In the statement, the company says that it did not actually sue the Amazon reviewer, but that it did insist that the reviewer's "untrue, damaging, and disparaging statements" be taken down. "It’s our sincere belief that reasonable people understand that not only is it within our rights to take steps to protect our integrity, but that it should be expected that we would do so when it is recklessly attacked," Mediabridge Products wrote. "The reviewer has since changed his review completely to remove the libelous statements, but unfortunately not before having an army attack us on the internet."
The company did not give any clue as to the terms of Amazon's rescinding of Mediabridge's selling license, but only said at the end of its statement, "Unfortunately, as a result of our attempt to get this reviewer to do the right thing & remove his untrue statements about our company, Amazon has revoked our selling privileges. Many hard-working employees whose livelihood depended on that business will likely be put out of a job, by a situation that has been distorted & blown out of proportion."
Original story: Lawyers for Mediabridge Products, a wireless network device manufacturer, sent a scathing letter to a redditor on Monday, threatening to sue him unless he deletes his negative review of one of the company's products on Amazon.com.
After posting the negative review of a Medialink Wireless Router product—which became the “most helpful” negative review on Amazon.com—an attorney for Mediabridge sent him a letter explaining that the company “zealously guards its hard-earned reputation” and that “you have harmed Mediabridge and we intend to hold you liable for all damages sustained.”
The reviewer, who goes by "trevely," posted the letter to reddit, soliciting responses (and receiving lots of them) and requesting help with his legal fees. “If you want to contribute to my legal fees, just message me for a link. I haven't been served yet, so hopefully it won't come to that,” the redditor explained.
"Never in my life have I been so relentlessly bullied by a company,” he wrote on Amazon. "Please keep that in mind when considering whether to purchase any products from Medialink. And if you decide to leave a negative review, don’t use your real name like I did."
In the letter, Mediabridge’s attorney, Neal Jacobs, explains that the company plans to take legal action against the reviewer for his "illegal campaign to damage, discredit, defame and libel Mediabridge and/or to engage in other tortious, wrongful, and/or illegal conduct directed against Mediabridge."
Jacobs details a number of the claims that the company says are false and misleading, including that “Mediabridge has falsified (“faked”) reviews” on Amazon to boost sales and that the Medialink wireless router in question “is identical to another router and that Mediabridge/Medialink only rebranded that same router.” The letter continues, “Make no mistake, these libelous statements you made in a public forum are false and you cannot support them with any proof.”
The company demands that “in order to avoid this coming to litigation” he must delete his negative product review on Amazon within three days of receiving this letter, stop all “defamatory and injurious” conduct toward the company, and agree to never purchase nor comment upon a Mediabridge product again.
Mediabridge was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday morning.
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