united-states liability defamation
What legal consequences exist for falsely accusing counterfeiting?
<p>Entity A falsely accuses in a formal complaint with a large E-Commerce website, a retailer or group of retailers of knowingly selling counterfeit goods, for entity A's own benefit. Entity A files no police reports, and does not contact the accused retailers. Entity A knows that this action will indirectly (through existing procedure E-Commerce company already has in place) have negative financial consequences toward the retailer or retailers in question. </p>

<p>What are Entity A's possible negative legal consequences for making such an accusation falsely, if any?</p>

<p>Jurisdiction: I don't understand jurisdictions very well, so in my hypothetical case it might be California, it might be Washington, or might be any number of locations in the United States. If my lack of understanding makes this question too broad, I would request assistance in better understanding jurisdictional authority in a situation like this. </p>

<p>Assume for this question, that Entity A has the right to represent the good or goods in question, and would plausibly have reason to complain against actual counterfeiting. </p>

<p>If somebody makes a false statement about your business in a way designed to harm your business, it generally constitutes libel. To prove libel in a court of law, you must prove:</p>

<p>(1) The statement is false and the defendant could reasonably be expected to know it was false</p>

<p>(2) The statement harmed your business in a material way or damaged your reputation in some significant way</p>

<p>(3) The false statement was calculated to harm your reputation or damage your business</p>

<p>If you can prove all 3 items, you can sue for whatever a jury will believe is an amount of money equal to the damage done to your business. If the false statement was malicious, that can be justification for multiplying the damages.</p>

<p>In the USA, there is "Tortious interference of business.- When false claims and accusations are made against a business or an individual's reputation in order to drive business away." according to Wikipedia. </p>
