What can I say in an online review without risking a claim for defamation?

Some authors of online reviews about businesses are not aware that in England, when it comes to defamation, the reviewer is liable not just for the word he or she used, but also to innuendo. Innuendo is a hint, or a meaning that once may attribute to the words themselves. It follows, that in defamation cases in England, a reviewer is unlikely to escape liability just because the express words used were not strictly speaking defamatory. What is also important is what readers of the online review understand from reading the review. People’s understanding of a matte often goes beyond the simple words used. Readers of online reviews have learned to read between the lines.

Questions about defamatory online reviews

Many people genuinely believe and even insist that review websites are there to enhance consumer’s ability to make the right choice or to educate them in choosing; a reputable supplier, a builder, an estate agent or even a holiday provider - and they are dead wrong. The truth is that the vast majority of those who operate review websites have clever systems that are aimed at benefitting them financially by encouraging visitors to their website to write negative reviews. This is often achieved by attacking and consequently destroying the reputation of good, honest and well established businesses across the UK.

False reviews and other defamatory statements that appear on the internet often leave the targeted business suffocating for cash and investment. Our well polished processes to removing defamatory web pages and forum posts from the internet often gives our clients the kiss of life that saves the business from bankruptcy.

Many business owners who find themselves victims of the 1 in 5 (acknowledged!) fake reviews on Yelp.com will admit that fake reviews are a business killer.

So when I first read Yelp.com advice to victims of fake reviewsI thought they were faking it. 

Fabricated stories that are made to sound credible with loads of ‘detailed information’ about the ‘real experience’ suffered by average Joe whilst shopping at your store/restaurant/office are as common as the name Joe.

It is now scientifically proven that at least a fifth of

Are fake reviews legal in the UK?

Writing a fake online review has never been easier. A fast growing industry of online review ‎websites leaves very little hope to those business owners who want to play it fair. ‎

The number of fake online reviews is constantly growing. A significant number of fake online ‎reviews are written by business owners who often act in despair after becoming ‎victims of fake online reviews.‎

Many "webpage removal specialists" offer to remove bad pages from the search results by using search engine optimisation (SEO).

It is a series of techniques that companies use to try and make their websites appear on the first pages of internet search results.

It is largely a promotional tool which, if used knowledgeably, can bring almost any business tons of success. SEO is a good medicine to cure marketing problems. But when it comes to a bad and rapidly spreading case of infectious defamation, SEO might be less effective.

Remember that SEO is a preventative tool. It does not "remove" or "delete" bad search results but only temporarily pushes them down the search results.

If the information that you wish to remove

How to respond to defamation on a review website.

Whether you are the victim of corporate defamation or of individual defamation, before responding to a bad review or to online defamation read this!

Don't rush it.

If you are considering writing a response to the defamatory article or to the negative review, then don't rush it.

Meet Gary. Gary was a small investor in listed public companies who held shares in a gold mining company RRR PLC. As an active investor, Gary used to be involved in online investment forums such as Interactive Investors.

This is business sabotage in the digital age. It is far more common than you might imagine and new enterprises are particularly vulnerable as they are at their weakest. The ‎culprits will normally be more established operators in their ‎sector/field who are seeking to ‘smother them in the cradle’ or ‎perhaps stifle their growth when they begin to feel the ‎effects of the competition on their own business.

It might also be from established entities who are retaliating ‎to what the incorrectly perceive to be similar behaviour on ‎the part of others. ‎ Restaurants are especially vulnerable to fake reviews. A recent study from Harvard University entitled, "fake it 'till you make it" shows that independent restaurants are much more likely to post fake reviews about their competitors than any other sector. Equally, they are quite fond of making up good ones about themselves.

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Have you recently suffered defamation by competitors?

Online defamation by competitors is not unheard of. Below is one classic example of defamation by competitors of a small family business. 

Jeff Clark, a husband and a father of three children ages 3, 6, and 10, has always loved cars. He has been fixing them since he was 12, and has worked in local garages around the Manchester area for many years.

It is possible to ease the pain caused by online defamation through principles of tactical transparency. There are numerous examples of organisations that for a period of time suffered sustained attacks on their reputation but nevertheless managed to come out at the end of the dark tunnel cleaner, stronger and loved by their customers.

Can I write a letter to ask for the web page that contains defamation to be removed from the internet?

Online Reputation travels fast and because so many members of the public wrongly believe that they can hide behind a made up name in an online forum to post comments without being accountable for the consequences of their comments, you can see how your business reputation could be completely tarnished almost overnight.

It is estimated by researchers that between 16 to 20 per cent of social media reviews are fake. We believe however that the real number is much higher.

We believe that between 50 to 65 per cent of all online reviews are fake.

A research by Harvard Business School entitled“Fake It Till You Make It: Reputation, Competition, and Yelp Review Fraud 24 September 2013” points to an emerging industry of fake review creation, which is primarily being driven by business owners who either leave positive reviews for themselves, negative reviews for their competitors or a combination of both.

Review websites are either Industry Specific or Multi Area. They create an image of a service for the public good whilst in fact, they are commercial enterprises, they are not altruistic. Their commodity is YOUR reputation, and it's free of charge. Review websites often claim to have a right to publish without responsibility for content. This claim is false; in many cases operators of review websites are also the publishers and often the editors of the posts and are therefore liable to you for defamation.

When was the last time you searched online for information about ‎your own company? If the answer to this question is ‎‎“never” then you are not alone. But you also need to read on…‎

Many organisations spend little or no time in researching ‎themselves on the internet. This makes sense on the face of ‎it; what could you possibly learn that you don’t already ‎know? ‎But it is precisely this subconscious dismissal of the notion ‎that you could find something out that you don’t already ‎know that enables negative ‘information’ from going ‎undetected for so long and causing so much damage.

Review Centre is one of the largest and most influential business review websites in the UK. Unfortunately, many reviews on ReviewCentre are fake with the majority being posted by or on behalf of competitors. The likelihood of us being able to facilitate the removal of fake and defamatory online reviews from ReviewCentre is high and to date all our attempts have been sucessfull.