Contractor sues Nexdoor over nasty, allegedly false comments he says cost him business

Update: Judge dismisses suit.

A home contractor who used to work in eastern Massachusetts yesterday sued Nextdoor for failing to quickly take down negative comments from a disgruntled customer that he says were false and cost him tens of thousands of dollars in lost business.

In his suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Robert Duffer says despite a user contract prohibiting false and defamatory posts, a woman upset over his work on a fence kept posting negative comments about him - at one point vowing to keep doing so until he was driven out of business - and that Nextdoor took three weeks to finally remove them after both he and "an associate" had flagged the posts.

Duffer says that as a result of her campaign, and because Nextdoor was slow to finally remove her missives, he immediately lost four jobs worth a total of $18,000. He is suing for that amount, plus the $100,000 he says he earned from his contracting business, which relied heavily on Nextdoor ads, before he moved to Montana several months later.

Duffer alleges the problems began when a woman in his hometown hired him to install a fence in October, 2020.

Parts necessary to the installation were either missing or not the correct parts but the Nextdoor neighbor asked Mr. Duffer to install the fence anyway because the correct parts would not be available until March.

After the job was completed, the neighbor paid for the work and thanked Mr. Duffer for, "a job well done."

But then:

Approximately four weeks later, [the neighbor] went on Next Door and, contrary to her "job well done" provided a review which stated I did a
horrible job and not to use me. She followed up her statement with my name, business name, and number and gave recommendations of other contractors "better suited" to do the work."

These comments were followed by other negative comments concerning Mr. Duffer leading to a starkly negative comment on Nextdoor concerning Mr. Duffer. "I will
continue to bash and talk negatively about you so no one has to ever deal with you again and no one ever hires you again."

One of Duffer's two specific charges: Nextdoor violated the Massachusetts consumer-protection law that bans "false or deceptive advertising" because:

That the Defendant—in a contact of adhesion-- led the Plaintiff to believe that disparaging postings damaging his reputation on the Nextdoor website would, if reported, be removed from publication is both unfair and deceptive.

His other charge alleges negligence.

Duffer's court filing says he lived in Middlesex County, but does not specify which town.