Website suspends Purplebricks review site after legal threats

By Alasdair Pal LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s largest independent estate agent review site allAgents has removed its Purplebricks page after the online company questioned the authenticity of critical reviews. Purplebricks, which is expanding into the United States and Australia, has pitted its no-commission model against traditional British estate agents such as Foxtons and Countrywide. “Due to repeated threats of legal action to remove content and negative reviews from our site, we have unfortunately taken the unprecedented step of suspending the Purplebricks profile page until further notice,” allAgents said. All of the reviews allAgents was asked to remove, around half of which were about Purplebricks, gave it the lowest rating of one star. “Purplebricks is proud of its reputation and the quality of the service it provides,” the estate agent said on Tuesday. Purplebricks shares have more than quadrupled since listing in December 2015, and the company has made its consistently positive reviews a focus of its earnings reports. AllAgents director Martin McKenzie said he believes the reviews Purplebricks seeks are authentic and that the company has “strict checks” in place, including verifying email and IP addresses. “Our business is built on trust and we will never allow the impartiality of our reviews to be compromised in any way,” he said. (Reporting by Alasdair Pal; editing by Alexander Smith)