Arizona based Xcentric Ventures, LLC, owner of the www.ripoffreport.com won a lawsuit filed by In Intellect Art Multimedia, Inc.,  against  Matthew Milewski and Xcentric Ventures, LLC.  The plaintiff sued for defamation after Milewski filed a report on Xcentric’s website critical of the school.

On or about July 19, 2008, a report was posted on ripoffreport.com regarding SFA. In that positing, the author, “Lilly”, accused plaintiff of being a “bait & switch company,” making “false promises,” and being run “by two incompetent (sic) people.”

The court holds that the cause of action for defamation against Milewski must be dismissed because the challenged speech is merely an alleged statement of Milewski’s personal opinion about the quality of services provided by plaintiff.

. . . when viewed in its full context, reveals that Milewski is a disgruntled consumer and that his statements reflect his personal opinion based upon his personal dealing with plaintiff. They are subjective expressions of consumer dissatisfaction with plaintiff and the statements are not actionable because they are Milewski’s personal opinion. Since the statements are protected opinion, the first cause of action is dismissed. . . .

Xcentric is protected by the Communications Decency Act, which provides that “

[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” 47 USCA § 230 (c) (1). Accordingly, the third cause of action is hereby severed and dismissed.