We've heard the horror stories: Customer bought a lemon product or engaged a company that did a crappy job. The customer complained on social media. Then the company sued the customer for violation of the fine print in the agreement he had to accept in order to buy the product or obtain the service. Bummer.
Well, the U.S. House of Representatives is trying to rescue consumers from this outcome by passage of H.R. 5111: Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016. Leonard Lance (R. New Jersey) sponsored the bill which will invalidate gag provisions in consumer contracts.
It passed the House a couple of weeks ago (9/12/2016). So the only obstacles are the Senate and the President. Will they go along with it? The above linked govtrack.us site gives it a 24% chance of being enacted, but that shouldn't stop anyone with a legitimate complaint. Any company attempting to enforce such a clause will have an uphill battle in the court of public opinion. And anyone sitting on a jury who checked an "Accept" button without reading pages and pages of text isn't likely to be too sympathetic to the company trying to enforce it.
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