Guesthouse heads to court to battle anonymous reviewers
Author
Damien WildePosted On 26th January 2015
From websites like TripAdvisor through the social-media entities such as Facebook and Twitter, customers can leave feedback about a particular dining experience be it good or bad. With the move towards these digital reviews becoming more and more prominent, people have to curate this type of particular content.
For better or for worse, sometimes, stories crop up that highlight the negative aspects of this trend.
According to reports emanating from the newspapers over the weekend the owners of the Tigh na Cheo guesthouse are expected to lodge papers this week in a bid to stop a flurry of adverse reviews about their lodgings that they claim are false and malicious.
But they are only able to do this, the Sunday Times report, because of the intervention of a mysterious and wealthy benefactor.
This anonymous figure has opened up funds for Martin and Jacqui Clark to use in their battle against these supposed fictitious reviews.
It is alleged that since 2011 a number of comments have been posted under different pseudonyms in a bid to tarnish the bed and breakfast’s reputation.
The Clarks are hoping to learn the identities of the anonymous reviewers so that they can sue the involved individual(s) for defamation.
This case has been going on for a while, and has made, at some points, the national news.
Previously a court in Edinburgh has decided not to order TripAdvisor to identify those responsible because the website argued, successfully, that their headquarters are in Massachusetts and therefore any legal issues need to be settled there – not in Scotland.
Speaking on behalf of the Clarks, Campbell Deane said: “My clients are not going after TripAdvisor, but as [it is] a company which has a presence in the UK they find it unacceptable that [they have] consistently refused to remove the false reviews, or to provide information on who posted them.”
If you are interested in the impact of the online world and negative comments could have on your business, then this article, originally published last year, may be of use.