• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 6, 2017

Late last year, Congress passed a law aimed at protecting consumers' rights to post reviews online.

The Consumer Review Fairness Act, signed by former President Barack Obama last December, invalidates standardized contractual provisions that attempt to restrict people's ability to post reviews. That law could soon play a role in a long-running fight over reviews on the vacation rental site VRBO.com.

The battle dates to 2013, when New Yorkers Claude and Violaine Galland rented out their Paris apartment to two vacationing couples, who subsequently posted some critical comments on the vacation rental site VRBO.com.

One of the couples, Stephen and Terri Bowden of Alabama, allegedly wrote that the apartment was “small and noisy,” but “attractive enough” and close to the Metro and Notre Dame Cathedral. Another couple, James and Judith Johnston of Oregon, allegedly wrote that they had “an awful experience” at the apartment.

“Expect a 2 story climb of narrow stairs, sloping floor, poor lighting, exposed utilities, broken and patched plaster,” they allegedly wrote. “The reviews are way too wordy and sound like the owner.”

The Gallands sued both couples for libel and breach of contract, alleging that the rental agreements contained a clause prohibiting tenants from complaining in online reviews. The Gallands referred to that ban as a "house rule," writing that it must be followed even in the event that “the four-horses-of-the-acopalyspe emerged from doom.”

In 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan in New York dismissed the libel allegations, but ruled that the Gallands can pursue their breach of contract claims. The Bowdens subsequently settled the lawsuit, according to court papers, but the Johnstons are still fighting it.

This summer, the advocacy group Public Citizen entered the case on behalf of the Johnstons. That organization says in a letter sent this week to Sullivan that it is prepared to argue that the Galland's ban on negative reviews is void under the Consumer Review Fairness Act.

Public Citizen also says it plans to raise other arguments, including that a state judge ruled years ago that New York's consumer protection law prohibits clauses that ban bad reviews. In 2003, former New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took action against Network Associates (now McAfee), for telling consumers that they needed permission to publish reviews. In 2003, Spitzer won an injunction requiring the company to remove that language from its terms of service.