Legal Niches

If you live in New York, you can now order Subway sandwiches by text message.  Subway "restaurant owners have seen their average order sizes grow 50 percent since starting" the service.

"The lawsuit filed by a San Francisco chiropractor against a patient who wrote a negative review of him on Yelp was settled last week . . . [the chiropractor] sued [the patient] for defamation nearly a year ago over a posting in which [the patient] had suggested that [the chiropractor's] billing practices were dishonest because he had billed [the patient's] insurance company an amount that was four times what he had quoted . . . for two office visits in 2006, according to court documents. [The chiropractor] had allegedly told [the patient] that the price differential was due to the additional time and effort his office spends dealing with the insurers."

However, other litigation over Yelp reviews continues as a "pediatric dentist in Foster City has sued two people over negative comments about her practice that were posted on the review site Yelp, accusing them of libel.  The suit, filed in December in Santa Clara County Superior Court, asks for damages because of the posting, which complained about how Yvonne Wong treated a boy who visited her with cavities."

Update (1/19/2009):  Techdirt reports that the dentist also sued Yelp.  Apparently, her attorney was unaware of the protections afforded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and, now that the law has been brought to his attention, he will probably dismiss the defamation claim against the website.

"A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Amazon.com Inc. challenging New York's law requiring some out-of-state Internet retailers to collect New York sales tax."

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.