Can a bad TripAdvisor review constitute libel?

[smutchin]

Clearly neither he nor his legal advisors are familiar with the Streisand Effect.

For that matter, I'm not entirely convinced he or his legal advisors are familiar with the law. Do they really think it's OK to send people fake court injunctions?

Love this bit from the end of the Mirror piece:

“The article gives the impression that our client is a fraudster, that he is involved in a scam, that he is trying to avoid being spoken to by the German authorities and that he is in fact a fugitive, all of which is untrue,” they wrote.

“No prosecution has been brought against him in relation to the matters mentioned in the article and it is very likely that no proceedings will ever be brought against him as he completely denies all the allegations mentioned in the article.”

In fact, as I reported in March, Mohsin Salya was jailed in Germany for three years and three months.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I'd have thought that a review, by definition, was a person's opinion.

You thought wrong. Opinion is fine, for example
"I believe / in my opinion, Restaurant A, is a bag of shite, I feel I wouldn't use their food to poison rats, and I found the staff to be a bunch of drooling rude cretins"

And

"Restaurant A, is a bag of shite, I wouldn't use their food to poison rats, and the staff are a bunch of drooling rude cretins"

are likely to be viewed differently by the law of tort and lawyers after their fees.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-tort-law-definition-and-examples.html

 

[bianchi1]

We had this review once

"We were greeted by a nice young waiter who changed once he saw my daughter had a learning disability and carer. He looked down his nose at us and said "we are fully booked" even though there were empty tables. Only visit this restaurant if you are not disabled and you are happy to eat in a place where people are discriminated against"

Total lies. The waiter in question hasn't got a discriminatory bone in his body and cant recall seeing anyone with any form of disability on the night in question. He did turn customers away as we were (as most Saturdays) fully booked. Just because tables are empty doesn't mean they are not booked in 15 minutes time!

We contacted the customer (a vicar) via TripAdvisor and she maintained that we had discriminated against her daughter. We also contacted TripAdvisor and they Just told us to write a reply.

 

[winjim]

I'm not sure the Streisand effect really applies in this case. There's no such thing as bad publicity and I wouldn't be surprised if they saw an increase in custom from people who just want to go for a giggle or to see just how bad it actually (probably) is(n't). Thr Streisand case was about intrusion of privacy.

 

[swee'pea99]

I have to say the most striking thing to me is the abysmal standard of writing that apparently passes muster in the Daily Mirror these days.

Why would customers who have not been unimpressed - ie, who have been impressed - be threatened by lawyers? A GCSE student who tripped themselves up with their own double negatives would be taken to task, and rightly so. And this is a professional journalist with his own byline on a major national paper.

As for the 'case', sounds to me like the Law Society needs to take a beady look at Cohen Davis Solicitors. The idea that there could be any substance to their threats (which would among other things require their clients to prove that their staff had not been rude or the food mediocre - clearly impossible, given the levels of subjectivity involved) is risible, and leaves little doubt that their action constitutes no more or less than attempted intimidation. This isn't 'law'; this is bullying. Surely something their professional body should frown on - and act on. It's not like they don't, as the article outlines, have form.

 

[Markymark]

The whole thing is a bit of a farce. Switched on companies have processes to encourage good reviews to drown out the bad. Smaller companies suffer from fake reviews by the competition.

Best advice is to ignore online reviews.

 

[smutchin]

Best advice is to ignore online reviews.

You can often glean useful information from Trip Advisor but you have to be able to read between the lines in many cases. I think if I read a review of the kind @bianchi1 mentions, I would take it with a pinch of salt. Fake reviews and those posted by people with a chip on their shoulder are generally very easy to spot.

 

[DaveReading]

Opinion is fine, for example
"I believe / in my opinion, Restaurant A, is a bag of shite, I feel I wouldn't use their food to poison rats, and I found the staff to be a bunch of drooling rude cretins"

And

"Restaurant A, is a bag of shite, I wouldn't use their food to poison rats, and the staff are a bunch of drooling rude cretins"

are likely to be viewed differently by the law of tort and lawyers after their fees.

Well you're entitled to your view, but I can't see any lawyer (even one who is going to get paid whether they win or lose) trying to convince a judge that a TripAdvisor review needs to be prefixed by "It's my opinion that ..." in order to clarify that that's what it is.

 

[smutchin]

Well you're entitled to your view, but I can't see any lawyer (even one who is going to get paid whether they win or lose) trying to convince a judge that a TripAdvisor review needs to be prefixed by "It's my opinion that ..." in order to clarify that that's what it is.

It's my opinion that RR doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

 

[Markymark]

You can often glean useful information from Trip Advisor but you have to be able to read between the lines in many cases. I think if I read a review of the kind @bianchi1 mentions, I would take it with a pinch of salt. Fake reviews and those posted by people with a chip on their shoulder are generally very easy to spot.

Ignore the 5* and the 1*

 

[swee'pea99]

The whole thing is a bit of a farce. Switched on companies have processes to encourage good reviews to drown out the bad. Smaller companies suffer from fake reviews by the competition.

Best advice is to ignore online reviews.

I'm with Smutchin - I'd say best advice is to review reviews but not take any of them as gospel.

 

[smutchin]

Ignore the 5* and the 1*

Or ignore the star ratings altogether, read the content of the review and make a judgment whether it is based on sound reasoning and worth taking notice of.

 

[Racing roadkill]

It's my opinion that RR doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.

In my opinion that's libellous

 

[Drago]

@Drago[/USER] you smelly old ****?

@Bollo Who's been talking?

 

[jefmcg]

Can anyone find the review? It seems to be missing from tripadvisor.

I say I totally believe it. A company that responds to negative customer feedback with a pitbull lawyer and threats rather than addressing the problem, is almost certainly going to be rude on the phone and serve shitty food.