US judge won't shield Yelp from Texas lawsuit over crisis pregnancy center notices

Yelp

02/02/2024 23:18

By Brendan Pierson
       Feb 2 (Reuters) - A California federal judge has refused
to shield Yelp  YELP.N  from a lawsuit by the state of Texas
accusing it of posting misleading notices about crisis pregnancy
centers on its online review site.
    U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in Oakland, California,
ruled Thursday that federal courts cannot interfere with state
actions enforcing their laws unless they are brought in bad
faith. She said that required her to dismiss a preemptive
lawsuit Yelp had filed against Republican Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton last September in an effort to stop him from suing
the San Francisco-based company for posting notices warning
users that the centers provided limited medical services.
    "To be clear, the court is not convinced that Paxton acted
entirely in good faith in bringing this case against Yelp;
still, Yelp has not provided enough concrete evidence of his
subjective motivations to prove otherwise," Thompson wrote.
    "Yelp cannot mislead and deceive the public simply because
the company disagrees with our state's laws," Paxton said in a
statement.
    "Yelp will continue to press forward to vigorously defend
our constitutionally protected free speech rights to provide
consumers with access to accurate information," the company said
in a statement.
    Yelp sued Paxton in Oakland federal court on Sept. 27 after
hearing Paxton intended to sue the company, which he did the
next day. Paxton said that notices Yelp posted on the review
pages for crisis pregnancy centers violated a Texas law against
unfair business practices.
    Crisis pregnancy centers offer pregnant women counseling
while seeking to prevent them from having abortions. Generally,
they do not clearly advertise their anti-abortion stance.
    In August 2022, Yelp began posting a notice on crisis
pregnancy centers' pages stating: "This is a Crisis Pregnancy
Center. Crisis Pregnancy Centers typically provide limited
medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals
onsite."
    Last February, Paxton and other Republican state attorneys
general told Yelp the notice was misleading because it was
posted on pages of centers that did have licensed medical
professionals.
    The company, without conceding that the language was
misleading, changed the notices to state that crisis pregnancy
centers "do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion
providers." Paxton said at the time that the new language was
accurate.
    In his lawsuit, Paxton is seeking to make Yelp pay
unspecified money damages.
    

 (Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
 ((Brendan.Pierson@thomsonreuters.com; 332-219-1345 (desk);
646-306-0235 (cell);))