Commercial Disparagement An Increasing Concern In The Age Of Social Media

Companies are turning to social media with increasing frequency to directly communicate with customers and potential customers. T-Mobile USA is no exception. Not only did the company release an astonishingly snarky press release in January, complete with fake quotations attributed to AT&T, but both T-Mobile and its CEO, John Legere, have recently taken to Twitter to comment on the services of their competitors. These comments, variously described in the media as " trash talk," " mocking," and " antics," include such statements as "there are the same number of broncos getting into the end zone as customers going into @ATT stores" and "Hopefully he uses @TMobile because he'll never get through on @ATT."

Commercial Disparagement

Mr. Legere's jokes are unlikely to be taken seriously or to give rise to liability. However, there can be little doubt that the expanding use of social media...