This is FUD. The worst case for GPL software is that you're not complying with the license and you're liable for statutory damages for copyright infringement. Not coincidentally that's also the worst case for every other license, including BSD/MIT, commercial proprietary licenses, and everything in between.

You're sadly right that many big enterprises purport to believe there's some special extra risk unique to the GPL, but you're wrong to say it's a "very real legal risk"; there's no reasonable basis for believing that at all.