Over the years, you’ve worked hard to build up your company’s reputation. You have achieved many positive reviews, which you know are helpful to your success.
But then your business gets a severe negative review. It doesn’t feel fair to you as it harms your company’s reputation, and you believe it’s even pushing customers away. In this sense, the review is literally costing your company money. Is it possible to sue for defamation because of the harm that this has caused?
Is the review accurate?
It is possible for a negative review to be a type of defamation. But this is only true if the reviewer intentionally made false statements about the business. In order for something to be defamation, the person saying it has to know that it is false when they make that claim.
For example, perhaps you run a restaurant. A person who ate at the restaurant writes a review and says that they didn’t like the service and they didn’t particularly care for the food they received. This may harm your business’s reputation, but it is not defamation because it’s just based on their opinion.
On the other hand, perhaps the review accuses you of being discriminatory against certain patrons who came to your restaurant. This is something that you know never happened, and so it is unfair for your business to suffer from this type of negative review. The reviewer knew that there wasn’t any discrimination at the time, but they intentionally made that false claim specifically to harm your business.
As you can imagine, these cases can be complicated. Be sure you know what legal options you have to defend your company and your reputation.
