Can You Get Sued for Bad Google Review
When you're building a business organisation, you want to do everything you can to provide stellar products and/or services to your customers. When y'all operate at a high standard, you'll gain a reputation as a business that people tin trust and rely on—and that reputation will continually drive new customers your way.
Online reviews play a huge office in edifice that reputation. When potential customers enquiry your business and read glowing, five-star reviews, they're going to want to attain out and practise business with you. But if they read a bad review (even if it's biased, unfair or completely untrue), information technology'south going to exercise the opposite—and send those customers straight to your competitors.
As a business owner, you want to do everything you tin to finer deal with negative reviews and then they don't ruin your concern' reputation and keep customers from working with you.
But what do you do when you get an unfair or untrue comment? How do y'all handle the situation? And tin you (or should you) take it as far as suing for defamation?
Contents
- Who Tin can You Sue Over a Bad Review?
- Can You Sue Review Sites Directly?
- What Can Y'all Do?
- What Not to Do
- Deal With Bad Reviews Effectively
Who Can You Sue Over a Bad Review?
To be honest, the answer is: Information technology depends.
For the most part, reviews are covered under the First Amendment, which protects free speech. Additionally, 34 U.South. states have passed Anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) laws. Anti-SLAPP is intended to prevent people or businesses from silencing or censoring their critics by intimidating them with the threat of a lawsuit.
Thanks to these protections, if a client is unhappy with your products or services, or the experiences they've had with your business, they accept the correct to say and then—whether that be in person, over the telephone, or online.
There are, notwithstanding, exceptions. If a client posts a review that is factually inaccurate or contains accusations about your business that are untrue, you lot may accept grounds to sue the online reviewer for defamation.
The best style to distinguish betwixt the two? Any review that contains a customer'south opinions or factual data about your concern would be covered under free speech. Some examples of content that would exist covered under the Kickoff Amendment include:
- "That business organization charges an arm and a leg!"
- "I wasn't happy with the level of service I received."
- "The customer service representative was rude."
On the other paw, any review that contains blatant factual inaccuracies that damage your business concern could exist grounds for a defamation lawsuit. Some examples of content that might permit you lot to sue (bold the content is untrue) include:
- "This company does not have a license to provide their services."
- "One of the workers stole an expensive watch while painting my abode."
- "This visitor charged me for services that they never delivered—and have refused to return my money."
Earlier you lot even consider suing, make sure y'all distinguish whether the comment would even qualify as defamation—or if information technology would be protected under the First Amendment.
Can You Sue Review Sites Directly?
There are certain scenarios where you lot would be able to sue a reviewer over a bad review (namely if information technology independent factual inaccuracies that harmed your business).
But what about the site where the review is hosted? Can you go higher up the customer and sue the review site directly?
Equally it turns out, you can't.
Under the U.S. Communications Decency Human action, websites cannot exist held liable for publishing any content written by a third party—and that includes review sites similar Yelp, Google Reviews, Healthgrades, and Angie'southward List.
So if the review site doesn't change or change the content or meaning of the original annotate? They're protected from any potential libel or defamation suits, which means you lot can't sue them.
What Can Y'all Practise?
If y'all happen to come across a negative comment about your business organisation, what should you exercise? Is filing a defamation lawsuit a viable option?
The truth is, it takes a significant amount of fourth dimension, money and free energy to rent a lawyer and bring a arrange to courtroom in order to get a bad review removed from a review site. Simply, if the comment is extremely harmful to your business organisation (and yous can prove information technology to be simulated), it may be worth that fourth dimension, money and energy. If non, there are other, more practical ways to bargain with a bad review.
Some strategies you lot tin utilise to effectively bargain with a negative review online include:
- Request the website to remove the online review. If someone has posted a comment that'southward both negative and factually inaccurate, you can request that the website remove it past making your case that the information in the review is false. Only keep in mind that they're under no obligation to remove the review.
- Post a thoughtful, gracious response. Arguably the best fashion to deal with a negative review? Posting a thoughtful, gracious response. Address any issues brought up in the review, share how your company is working to ensure it doesn't happen again and offer a solution to the customer. For example, if they had a negative client service, yous might apologize and offering them a disbelieve code for a future purchase.
- Generate more than positive online reviews. I of the all-time means to gainsay negative reviews? With plenty of skilful reviews. Strive to offer the best products and/or services to your customers, make certain they're satisfied and and then ask them to mail service a review.
If you ultimately decide to move forward with a lawsuit, it's important to consult a lawyer immediately. And especially before you invest too much time, coin or energy into the process. They tin give you deeper insights on your legal options, the viability of your case and whether you might exist able to successfully sue for damages.
What Not to Practise
In that location are also a few things yous definitely DON'T want to exercise when you observe a negative review for your business, including:
- React immediately: Reading negative comments sting. So when you read 1, your knee-jerk reaction may exist to respond in the moment (e.g., by posting a comment defending yourself). Only if you lot reply immediately, you may react poorly (e.k., lashing out because you feel angry or insulted). Instead, give yourself fourth dimension to absurd off before yous write a measured response.
- Ignore the content: While it tin can be difficult to read negative or critical things nigh yourself or your business, if in that location's truth to the negative review, information technology can be a growth opportunity. Don't immediately ignore the content of a review just because information technology's negative. Instead, sit with it. Run across if there's any truth to what the review says and develop a plan to accost the issue moving forward.
- Retaliate: If a comment is either insulting or spreading lies nearly your business, you may want to retaliate confronting the reviewer. But information technology's incredibly important not to retaliate online because that retaliation can come back to haunt you—especially if you plan to file a defamation suit.
Here's a real-life example:
A contractor filed a $700,000 lawsuit against a homeowner who claimed on Yelp and Angie's Listing that he damaged her townhouse, billed her for work he never completed and stole her jewelry. Originally, the court awarded the contractor a victory and ordered the homeowner to have down the annotate about theft.
Just before going to trial, the contractor posted his own negative comments in response, claiming that since the homeowner never paid, she actually stole from him.
Ultimately, the jury determined that while the homeowner defamed the contractor, the contractor'south later negative remarks also defamed her—then no damages were awarded. Substantially, the contractor's online retaliation may take cost him a $700,000 settlement.
Deal With Bad Reviews Effectively
No i likes to see bad reviews for their business—specially if they're malicious, harmful or untrue. But now that you know the nearly effective ways to deal with them, you'll know how to navigate the situation next time you come across a negative comment—whether that's by managing it on your own or consulting a lawyer to motility forrad with a defamation suit.
This mail service was updated in August, 2020.
Source: https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/can-you-sue-over-a-bad-review
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