A router company has had its selling privileges revoked by Amazon after threatening to take action against the author of an "untrue, damaging & disparaging" review.
The author, named "trevely", attacked wireless router from Mediabridge, claiming that it was a knock-off of a similar product and accusing the company of paying for positive reviews on Amazon.
In a letter sent to trevely, the company lawyers grilled the critic, writing: "Your statements are false, defamatory, libelous, and slanderous, constitute trade libel and place Mediabridge and its products in a false light."
Taking to Reddit to seek legal advice, the story prompted Redditors to unleash a barrage of negative reviews against the company product, and hundreds of 1-star ratings.
The publicity prompted Amazon to revoke the company’s selling privileges, a fact Mediabridge lamented in a post on their Facebook page that has since been removed.
"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," the company wrote. "This is the reality of the situation. Remember that there is a human aspect to this story."
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"Some may mistakenly believe that this is not a very big deal & that we should have just let it blow over," they added. "However, we learned from experience that statements like these do not always just blow over."
The firm claimed it had previously spent two years defending itself "this same false accusation", but many will question the wisdom of pursuing such legal battles in light of the result this time.
