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The court cited lack of evidence in the locksmith’s claim, saying Yelp was not the culprit, only a third-party aggregator of data, and therefore was not liable.

While Yelp was not the direct target of a lawsuit filed by a New York dentist, his legal action against a former patient who posted a negative review on the site pushed the company one step further in protecting their consumers. The service now adds warnings to pages of businesses engaged in similar legal proceedings. In July, Yelp wrote a blog post announcing the feature, saying:

“Since Yelp was founded in 2004, we’ve made it our business to help protect consumer free speech. Consumers have the right to share their opinions about their experiences with businesses, but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech rights. As a result, we started a new type of Consumer Alert to warn people about businesses that issue questionable legal threats.”

While businesses have legal protection against both libel and slander, or oral defamatory statements, it’s been the job of the courts and of Congress to adapt our law to changing times and technologies.

Thanks to legal concerns raised by these lawsuits, consumers are now guaranteed the right to leave a bad review.

In 1996 the Communications Decency Act was passed, which let websites provide “neutral tools” for users to post online, and as such, would keep the websites from being held liable for potentially libelous content posted by individuals. The 1996 law has been used to protect sites like Yelp from legal action for two decades, but after numerous challenges over the years, Congress has gone a one step further to protect consumer’s rights.

The Consumer Review Fairness Act, passed in December of 2016, forbids businesses from penalizing or taking legal action against a client who publishes public criticism. The legislation follows years of efforts by consumer advocate groups to rid the business world of the fine print in contracts that ultimately forbid bad reviews from customers. This fine print, also known as a “gag clause,” was, prior to the passing of the Act, a legal way to limit free speech.

Yelp says the Consumer Review Fairness Act “gives Americans nationwide new guaranteed legal protections when it comes to sharing these honest, first-hand experiences.”

So, feel free to complain away, and warn your neighbors about the shifty contractor, the bad sushi, or the tattoo artist who spelled your girlfriend’s name wrong, and know that your words are your own and that they are protected for years to come.