Even if companies can allege that a competitor faked online profiles to write negative reviews and give low ratings to products, they still need to put forward some specific facts about the economic relationships that were disrupted to get claims to stick against them in a business defamation lawsuit.

That, in essence, is what U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins of the Northern District of California ruled in a dispute where cloud-based communications service RingCentral has accused its rival Nextiva of spreading fake reviews online about its service.