As a business owner, do I have the legal right to remove my listing from websites like Yelp, Google Local, Yellowpages.com, etc.?
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As a business owner, do I have the legal right to remove my listing from websites like Yelp, Google Local, Yellowpages.com, etc.?
Asked on May 20, 2011 under Business Law, California
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
No, unfortunately you do not have this right as general matter of law, at least not in the U.S. In the United States, anyone may publish any publically available information, and once information is made publically available in one venue, other venues may pick it up and publish it, or in the case of Google, "point" to it. While if you are being listed with someone pursuant to a contract, you may, subject to the terms of that contract pertaining to termination of the listing, have them stop listing you, sites with whom you do not have a relationship but which are simply aggregating, posting, finding, etc. other public information may do that.
In at least one European country, Spain, there is a right to have at least older information deleted from the web; that right has not yet crossed the Atlantic.
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