Who may
Reviews
object?
Who may
Reviews
object?
from
Are only attorneys allowed to complain about negative reviews? Or are online providers without a license to practice law also allowed to do this?
Complaint about negative ratings
Negative reviews on the internet are not only annoying for many companies, but also have serious economic consequences. This applies in particular to unlawful reviews, which is why companies would like to have them removed. In addition to attorneys, online services also offer the service of having unjustified reviews removed. But are you allowed to do this?
The case
An online provider offered a service for deleting online reviews. The provider proceeded as follows:
If customers wanted to have reviews deleted, the provider first checked whether the customer had already written their own response to the reviews in question. If so, the customer was asked to delete it, otherwise no action would be taken.
Subsequently, the online provider objected to the illegality of internet reviews for its client using standard texts in which a customer relationship between the reviewing user and the reviewed company was denied across the board.
The online provider did not check whether or not there was actually any customer contact. The online provider or its managing director is not licensed as an attorney.
A lawyer saw this as a legal service requiring a license, which is only permitted for attorneys. Complaining about unlawful reviews always requires a legal examination in each individual case and is therefore a legal service requiring a license under the RDG, which the provider does not have. The online provider’s offer was therefore anti-competitive.
Decision of the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg on the offer to object to negative reviews
After the Hamburg Regional Court had refused to issue a temporary injunction against the online provider, the Hamburg Higher Regional Court(judgment of 23.11.2023 – Ref. 5 U 25/23) ruled in favor of the attorney and prohibited the online provider’s offer.
The online provider’s offer is a legal service requiring a license, which the online provider is not authorized to provide.
A legal service requiring a license under the RDG is any activity in specific third-party matters as soon as it requires a legal examination of the individual case. This includes any concrete subsumption of a matter under the relevant legal provisions that goes beyond a merely schematic application of legal norms without further legal examination. Whether the legal issues involved are simple or difficult is irrelevant.
The question of the necessity of a legal examination depends on the public opinion or the recognizable expectation of the person seeking justice.
The determination of whether an infringing rating exists regularly requires a case-by-case examination and an in-depth legal examination; the same applies to the preparation of a letter of complaint addressed to the platform operator. A selection of the complaint texts is also a legal service.
It does not matter that the online provider objected to the reviews without actually checking them, as a legal examination of the individual case would be necessary, at least objectively.
The use of the texts to complain about third-party customer reviews objectively already constitutes the provision of legal services requiring authorization, as the online provider is thereby acting in a legal capacity for the individual customer, at least vis-à-vis the respective portal operator. After all, claims are made on a case-by-case basis.
Conclusion
According to the Hamburg higher regional court judges, online service providers that offer the objection of online reviews require a license in accordance with the RDG. The authorization requirement is intended to ensure an appropriate level of quality for those seeking legal advice. This can be criticized, but online services and LegalTechs currently have to comply with these requirements.
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