Summary
- Negative reviews that are truthful or reflect an honest opinion cannot be challenged legally, even if they harm your business’s reputation.
- A review must be false and cause serious financial harm to your business before it qualifies as defamatory under the Defamation Act 2013.
- You have one year from the date of publication to bring a defamation claim, and early steps such as contacting the reviewer can help resolve matters without court action.
- This article is a plain-English guide to defamation law for business owners operating in the United Kingdom, explaining when a negative online review may give rise to a legal claim.
- The content has been prepared by LegalVision, a commercial law firm that specialises in advising clients on defamation and online reputation disputes.
Tips for Businesses
Respond to negative reviews promptly and professionally. If a review appears defamatory, contact the reviewer directly before escalating. Report potentially false reviews to the platform. Keep records of any financial harm caused. Act within one year of publication to preserve your legal options.
It can be tough to read and deal with negative online reviews of your business. Not only can they be upsetting, but you may also be worried that such reviews will harm your business through lost opportunities and lower turnover. This article explains the best way to deal with negative customer reviews and when you can seek a legal remedy for bad reviews.
Negatives vs. Defamatory Reviews
You can only seek a legal remedy for a negative online review if it is defamatory. Defamation is when a person or company’s reputation is harmed or is likely to be harmed by something false. This is called libel when it is done in writing, such as an online review. In summary, a defamatory review needs to be untrue and damage the reputation of your business as a result. In contrast, a negative review is merely factually accurate or made in the reviewer’s honest opinion.
Negative Reviews
A review can be negative for your business. However, this does not necessarily mean that you can seek a legal remedy. If a customer has a bad experience with your business, they are within their rights to write a review that is a truthful reflection of their experience. Negative reviews like this may still harm your business’ reputation, but you cannot take action against truthful reviews.
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Truth vs. Honesty
A truthful negative review explains the actual experience of a customer. So, for example, if they ordered Product A from you and can show that you did not send Product A, perhaps you sent Product B, or no product at all, then that is factually accurate.
An honest review is the reviewer’s honest opinion. Suppose they received Product A, but it was not the quality they expected, and their review stated this. On the other hand, perhaps they had a miserable shipping or delivery experience and wrote about that from their point of view as the person receiving the goods.
Responding to Truthful Negative Reviews
As stated above, you cannot take any legal action against a truthful or honest but negative online review. In this instance, your best course of action is to deal with the negative review appropriately. You may try engaging with the customer to try and fix whatever caused them to leave a bad online review.
Defamatory Reviews
To take legal action against a negative online review, it must be defamatory. To prove a defamation claim, an online review must be:
- false or dishonest; and
- cause (or likely to cause) serious harm to your business’ reputation.
Serious harm to businesses essentially means severe financial loss.
What the Law Says in the UK
In the UK, defamation law is governed by the Defamation Act 2013. This Act introduced the “serious harm” threshold. A business must show that the defamatory review caused, or is likely to cause, serious financial loss before a claim can proceed.
One important point: you must act within one year of the review being published. After that, you lose the right to bring a claim.
Before going to court, you should contact the reviewer directly. Send them a letter explaining why the review is defamatory and ask them to remove it. This shows the court you tried to resolve the issue first. If the review is on a platform like Google or Trustpilot, report it using their official complaints process. Platforms will sometimes remove content that clearly breaches their guidelines, even without a court order. Taking these steps early can save you significant time and legal costs.
Remedies for Defamation
Although damages are a possible remedy for successful defamation claims, your first step should be to try and remove the negative review to limit its potential damage. If the review is on your website, this should be relatively easy. On the other hand, if the review is on a third-party review site, you will need to contact the relative website operator for help in removing the defamatory review. If this does not resolve the harm or you cannot remove the review, you should consider a formal claim.
Defamation Defences
The person who left the review can rely on several defences. Firstly, they may demonstrate that the review was a true or fair comment concerning a matter of public interest. The publisher of a defamatory review can also rely on the fact that they published the review innocently and reasonably. Furthermore, they can argue they had no reason to believe they were publishing a defamatory statement and that they made an ‘offer of amends’. In the context of an online review, this might be publishing a correction and apology.
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Key Takeaways
It can be tricky to deal with negative online reviews for businesses and understand when a statement is or is not defamatory. The best way to handle negative reviews is to ensure you deal with problems with a customer as soon as you are aware of them. Additionally, you should keep an eye on places where customers may leave reviews. If you feel that a review is defamatory, you can seek its removal as soon as possible by contacting the reviewer or the website operator of a third-party site.
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Frequently Asked Questions
You can certainly request the removal of a negative review. If a negative review appears on your website, you can remove it without issue. However, suppose the review is on a third-party review site and is merely negative and not defamatory. In that case, the reviewer or website owner is under no obligation to remove the negative review.
If the review is on your business’ social media, like a Facebook page, you can remove it. However, if the review is on another social media profile, you should deal with it like a review on a third-party website.
Yes, employees can object to the transfer, which ends their employment.
All business assets transfer, including intellectual property, equipment, and existing contracts.
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