Why you cannot enforce your legal rights against Trustpilot

GraceCourt

"Trustpilot" is often mentioned in these forums, but it should be of concern that the corporate structure has been set up in such a way that UK data subjects cannot enforce their privacy rights: anyone using the UK Trustpilot web site is agreeing not only that they are contracted with Trustpilot A/S in Denmark, but they are also consenting to their personal data to be exported to the USA through "standard contractual clauses" which mean that UK data subjects can only obtain redress against the exporter of the data... which, in the case of Trustpilot A/S, means taking action in the Danish Courts!

But you might say that the site terms and conditions specify that UK law applies... which means nothing, because Trustpilot A/S is incorporated in Denmark and cannot be properly served with legal process because of this.  Have a read at what I've sent today to Trustpilot A/S:

I refer to our previous exchange of correspondence in June 2020 relating to non-compliance by Trustpilot Limited (registered in England, number 08595623) with the requirements of Part 6 of The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 (made under the Companies Act 2006), which is a criminal offence under Regulation 28.  Your position at that time was that UK data subjects were contracted with Trustpilot A/S which, being incorporated in Denmark, is not required to comply with UK consumer protection legislation.

With the tenth anniversary of the incorporation of Trustpilot Limited being on Monday 3 July 2023, I'm updating my data privacy advice for UK residents, which currently advises against providing Trustpilot A/S with any personal data whatsoever, because anyone doing so has no legal redress against Trustpilot A/S, and I note from your legal terms and conditions for use of Trustpilot's web site at https://uk.legal.trustpilot.com/for-reviewers/terms-of-use-for-consumers still states that "If you are located anywhere in the world outside of  the USA, Canada or Mexico then the Trustpilot entity you're contracting with, and the Governing Law and Jurisdiction which applies to your contract with Trustpilot will be Trustpilot A/S".  However, the next column states that the "Governing Law" will be that of England and Wales, and the next again column states that jurisdiction will be that of the Courts of England and Wales.  As Trustpilot A/S is not incorporated in England and Wales, that claim requires clarification, because although Trustpilot Limited's registered office in London is given as a contact address, and that entity is also registered as a UK data controller with the Information Commissioner under reference ZA385757, you have previously made it quite clear that Trustpilot Limited (and, presumably, Trustpilot Group PLC) accepts no liability whatsoever for any damages or compensation arising out of the unlawful storage and/or processing of the personal data of UK data subjects: the matter is particularly relevant because of the use of standard contractual conditions in relation to the export of that data to the United States of America, which has twice been ruled by the EU as providing inadequate data protection safeguards for such personal data - most recently by the "Schrems II decision".

Given the anomalous nature of these terms and conditions, and the ambiguity about compliance or otherwise by different Trustpilot legal entities with the above UK consumer protection legislation, I will be grateful if you can provide clarification in order that potential UK users of the Trustpilot Web site can be confident about how their legal rights in relation to data protection might - or might not - be exercised lawfully.  Please note that your response should be approved for general publication, and that any such response should be received within the next 14 days to avoid the updated narrative stating "There was no response from Trustpilot A/S in response to these concerns, and hence the advice to UK data subjects is still not to use, or to provide any personal data via, Trustpilot's various subsidiaries or Web sites."

I will update this post with any response that Trustpilot A/S provides.

Edit: The UK having left the EU, Trustpilot A/S is no longer within the jurisdiction of the English Courts using Part 72 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 as amended, which implemented the EU Small Claims Procedure into domestic law.

Edit 2 (13 July): The Privacy Team at Trustpilot A/S acknowledged receipt of my correspondence by return, but never responded further.  It therefore implicitly confirms that UK data subjects have no legal rights or recourse whatsover under UK legislation arising out of the unlawful or illegal storage and/or processing by Trustpilot A/S of their personal data.

You have been warned!

JGB1955

I'm confused about how you think you might have some 'claim' against Trustpilot.  Please explain?  Have you lost financially? 

cymruchris

Aside from that huge wall of text - what are you trying to achieve?

Removal of a bad review?

Removal of a review that you've posted but have changed your mind?

What is it that irks you that they've done that you're on a crusade to put right?

GingerTim

What's your point, caller?

GraceCourt

JGB1955 said:

I'm confused about how you think you might have some 'claim' against Trustpilot.  Please explain?  Have you lost financially? 

My experience with Trustpilot began when I tried to relate details in 2020 of my claim against Green Network Energy Limited for unlawfully processing my personal data - when Trustpilot responded, I was warned that the response was not compliant with UK consumer protection law but the non-compliance was because it came from Denmark. 

Long story short, although I won my County Court claim against Green Network Energy Limited (which coincidentally went bust after paying the claim), the post was censored by Trustpilot despite being completely objective and factually correct.  I was simply trying to warn users of the UK Trustpilot site about unlawful information-handling practices by Green Network Energy Limited, but as they were a paying customer of Trustpilot it was censored.

The fact that Trustpilot can do exactly the same, yet be out of the reach of any claims arising out of non-compliance by them or non-UK data processors (e.g. in the USA), should be very worrying for most users.

GingerTim

Could your review have run foul of one of Trustpilot's rules?

https://uk.legal.trustpilot.com/for-reviewers/guidelines-for-reviewers

We don't get involved in disputes about what actually went down between a reviewer and a business. Trustpilot is a consumer review platform, not a regulatory authority or a court of law.

cymruchris

So they hid one of your reviews after you'd taken a supplier to court, that in your eyes was honest and relevant, and you're trying to get them to stop hiding your review (and others) for whatever reason they're choosing to do so?

To be fair most people's level of trust in trustpilot is fairly low anyway with the number of scam/fake/false reviews that the site contains.

That doesn't stop you from doing what you think is right in terms of trying to get your review published, but personally I wouldn't get myself all het up about it. It's a review site that doesn't really do any more than give a vague sense of trust at best, and at worst I, alongside many, would likely not believe most of the things displayed there anyway.

GraceCourt

GingerTim said:

What's your point, caller?

The point is simple - all of the personal data that you provide through the UK Trustpilot site can be given or sold to anyone, including spammers in the USA and around the world, and there's absolutely nothing at all you can do about it unless you travel to Denmark to file your claim.

Alderbank

GraceCourt, is this a continuation of your earlier post 'Trustpilot A/S (Denmark) - censorship?'

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6153927/trustpilot-a-s-denmark-censorship/p1

GingerTim

GraceCourt said:

GingerTim said:

What's your point, caller?

The point is simple - all of the personal data that you provide through the UK Trustpilot site can be given or sold to anyone, including spammers in the USA and around the world, and there's absolutely nothing at all you can do about it unless you travel to Denmark to file your claim.

Can't say I'd be especially worried about that - but then I wouldn't put personal data into a Trustpilot review.

GraceCourt

GingerTim said:

Can't say I'd be especially worried about that - but then I wouldn't put personal data into a Trustpilot review.

It doesn't need to be in a review... just reading reviews will be providing data like your IP address, browser type, browser agent string, site from which you were referred, etc., etc.  That's all saleable information even though it might not include personal data and I'm not aware of any browsing security software that warns against browsing to trustpilot.com!

All sites can harvest this, but then most sites don't have deliberately misleading terms and conditions!