D.C. Home Improvement Company Has Lawsuit Against HomeAdvisor Dismissed

Washington, D.C.-based home improvement company Precision Contracting Solutions (PCS) had its lawsuit against HomeAdvisor and Angie's List dismissed for a failure to state an actionable claim, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The terms of service to which PCS agreed when using the online services played a large role in the court's decision to dismiss the case.

In July of this year, the DC District Attorney filed suit against PCS, alleging that PCS made misleading statements to consumers, performed illegal and substandard home improvement work, and harassed and threatened consumers who complained about PCS business practices.

On August 6, HomeAdvisor and Angie's List removed the PCS profile from their websites along with 54 consumer ratings and reviews of PCS that had been posted by District consumers. Later in August, a District homeowner named Carolyn Torsell sought to post a rating and review about her experiences with PCS, but when she went to HomeAdvisor's and Angie's List's websites to post her very positive rating and review of PCS, she couldn't do so because she found no profile or other information about PCS.

PCS filed suit against HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List, contending that the two sites violated federal law and that the sites cast PCS in a “false light.” The court found PCS’s claims lacking and dismissed the lawsuit.

PCS claimed that by their actions, the sites violated the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA). But that law didn’t help PCS for two reasons. First, the CRFA doesn’t give consumers a private right of action. Second, the court noted that even if the CRFA did provide a private right of action, PCS would have no claim.