Let’s say a private yellowbook company (company A) puts out a request for businesses to advertise with them and they would act as a phone directory for businesses.
Now, company “B” refuses their services, they don’t want to pay and are already listed in a different phone directory with better circulation.
Company “A” then sends out a free yellowbook listing with companies information in it that didn’t pay to have their name in their but lists company B’s phone number and information from approximately 15 years ago.
The new phone number has already been given out to another business, (Business C) Business C has to deal with all types of calls regarding requests for service and since they’re a doctor’s office, starts to become annoyed. Business B is also frustrated because they are losing business as people turn to this secondary yellowpage directory, dial the wrong number and think that Business B has closed.
Has Company A done damage against company B and C to the point where they can do something about it?
What laws protect Company B in particular but I would assume Company C as well.
Yes, this is a true situation I just want to keep the business names out of it.
I am not a lawyer but I have read about many of these types of things over the years. We have strong freedom of speech and freedom of the press rights in this country. That means that people or businesses are free to publish directories and other type of (truthful) information about anyone they wish. It has always been that way but lots of people get freaked out when something like www.zabsearch.com comes along and makes the convenience and reality of that more apparent. There are all kinds of lists and directories floating around and they are all fine to put together.
However, this company published the wrong number for you. That sounds bad (and it is) but phone companies, newspapers and other entities make the same mistake every day. I rarely hear about them paying huge fines for it. Even real libel is hard to prove let alone something that can be attributed to a simple mistake.
From what I have read, you would have to contact the directory company and ask them to correct it in the next addition. If they didn’t do that, you could talk to a lawyer about legal action but it is unlikely you will get anything unless you tried to address the problem yourself at least once.
Again, I am not a lawyer but these are just tidbits I picked up. They may all be wrong. A real lawyer may give you a consultation for free.