Summary
- Businesses cannot remove negative reviews outright but can report those that breach platform policies, such as fake or defamatory content.
- Responding professionally to negative reviews is legally safer than ignoring them and can mitigate reputational damage.
- Threatening legal action against reviewers without strong grounds can expose a business to further liability.
- This article is a plain-English guide for Australian business owners on managing negative online reviews under Australian law, prepared by LegalVision, a commercial law firm.
- LegalVision specialises in advising clients on defamation, reputation management, and consumer law disputes.
Tips for Businesses
Respond to negative reviews calmly and factually. Report reviews that are fake or defamatory to the platform using its official process. Keep records of harmful reviews. If a review may be defamatory, seek legal advice before contacting the reviewer directly or making any public statements.
Negative online reviews are a reality for every business, but not all reviews are created equal. UK law distinguishes between genuine customer feedback, which businesses must accept, and false or defamatory reviews, which they can challenge. This article will explore your legal obligations regarding negative online reviews against your UK business. In particular, it will inform you of when and how you can directly act against certain types of negative reviews.
Negative Reviews vs Disingenuous Reviews
Our starting point is that a UK business cannot ban or block online customer reviews simply because they are not complimentary. Some customers will have genuinely held concerns about your company’s products or services; in the UK, you cannot simply erase them from existence.
UK laws protect the right to free speech, so if an individual has published a genuine and honest opinion about a product or service, there is no legal recourse against it. This remains the case even if a viewpoint is a matter of opinion rather than fact. Therefore, each individual is as legally entitled to their view as your company is to its own.
However, UK law (and some internet providers) draw a line between ‘genuine’ reviews and ‘disingenuous’ or defamatory reviews. In this way, whilst your organisation is unlikely to remove genuinely held negative online reviews, it may be able to take action against false negative comments. Alternatively, you may consider raising the possibility of legal action against false negative comments in your website’s Terms of Use.
What is a Disingenuous or Defamatory Review?
UK law will seek to protect UK organisations from false or misleading reviews. What are false or fake reviews? Examples of these can include online reviews which:
- make false statements (such as leaving a negative review of a product or service without having purchased it);
- make misleading statements about the products or services (such as leaving a TripAdvisor review of a hotel stating that the hotel staff forced them to leave when, in fact, they were arrested by the police); or
- intentionally make defamatory comments about your company (such as leaving a one-star review for a product because they are an ex-employee who was treated poorly).
All of these reviews can cause damage to a business by putting off future potential customers. After all, most consumers looking to book a nice hotel would pick the one with the average 91% positive rating rather than a similarly priced one with just 68%.
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What Can My Business Do About Defamatory Reviews?
If your company believes that an online review is not truthful and is dishonest (or motivated by alternative reasons), it can consider a defamation action against the author. However, such actions can only win with a strong case. This is because UK courts seek to protect freedom of expression, particularly in cases between a business and an individual.
Alternatives to Starting a Defamation Action
Often, a UK company will ask the hosting company, for example, yell.com, Google Reviews or TripAdvisor, to remove the offending review. These websites have forms asking for specific evidence of why it is dishonest or false.
Most organisations’ first port of call is to ask the website to remove the review because it is usually cheap, quick and effective. If the website hosting the review refuses to remove it, it is possible to ask the actual author of the review (who has the power to remove it) to delist it. If they refuse, your business could ask a lawyer to send them a letter threatening formal defamation action against them if they decline.
Starting an online business in the UK is complex. This free guide helps you navigate the legal steps with confidence.
Key Takeaways
Most UK businesses deal with negative online reviews through review sites or social media platforms. However, UK law distinguishes between truthfully negative reviews and intentionally malicious and misleading statements. With the latter, your business may consider appropriate contact with the hosting website and author by email and letter.
If the review is highly defamatory and causes substantial financial loss, you may threaten and bring a formal defamation action against the author. However, given the cost of doing so and the difficulty of winning such actions, most UK companies will only do so where the review is causing extreme financial detriment.
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Frequently Asked Questions
While exploring ways to remove defamatory reviews is a good idea, most businesses will take a financial cost-benefit analysis of negative feedback. Unless fake negative reviews are causing substantial harm to a company’s online reputation or bottom line, they are unlikely to pursue formal legal action.
Most UK companies will avoid this tactic because it is unlawful and risks legal action against the company. In short, it is not worth the risk, and most businesses will trust their loyal customers to return regardless of the odd bad online review.
You need proof the review contains false statements or was posted by someone who never used your service.
Yes, this occurs, and it constitutes a disingenuous review. You can report it to the hosting platform or pursue defamation action if it causes serious financial harm.
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