How to deal with negative reviews on your brand? Well, it’s common and hiring a pro commercial litigation lawyer in Sydney can help you. Business lawyers are up-to-date with the latest business laws. And hence, they can help you deal with negative or fake reviews for your business. As per a 2023 report, almost 85% of customers trust online reviews beforehand. It also states that 60% of people avoid a business after reading negative reviews. Thus, it’s a must to handle the online review section of your business. And we’ll talk about that further in the below blog post.
1. What to do after spotting a negative review about your business?
Who doesn’t like to have new reviews on their business? But not every review is a good one. You may get excited to hear the notification sound on your mobile/PC, but it can be a bad review. So, what can you do? Here’re some tips,
a) You can respond to that review and apologise for the inconvenience if you feel that you’ve wronged the customer.
b) You can ask the third-party site/platform to remove the review with valid reasons.
c) You can contact the reviewer personally to solve their issues.
d) You can learn from the reviews and improve your service for betterment.
e) You can get legal help from professional business attorneys.
2. Can you sue someone for posting negative reviews?
When someone posts a review about your business, that doesn’t mean that’s legit. It can be from a fake account or your competitor to damage your reputation. And in that case, you can take legal actions against them based on the following facts,
a) If the review is fake or far away from being associated with your products/services.
b) If the review is misleading and hampering your brand’s reputation.
c) If the review expresses an opinion without having an actual basis.
d) If the review can be interpreted in more than one way.
3. What types of legal actions can you take against a fake review?
As per the ACL (Australian Consumer Law), people can leave honest and opinion-based reviews online. But that doesn’t apply to defamatory or dishonest reviews. In that case, a business can take legal actions based on the following claims,
a) Defamation Claim:
A defamatory review should be public, harming a business’s reputation. Besides that, the review must identify your business to let you sue them for defamation. With the help of a professional business lawyer, you can do that. But as per the Defamation Act 2005, you’ve to file a Concerns Notice to the reviewer before proceeding with the claim.
b) Australian Consumer Law Claim:
According to Australian Competition and Consumer Act 2010, businesses can’t post misleading or fake reviews or arrange for others to do so. Hence, if you think that one of your competitors opened fake accounts to post fake reviews about you, you can sue them. If the ACCC notices false reviews, they’ll take action.
c) Injurious Falsehood Claim:
This claim comes to action when the review is the false statement posted by third parties to harm a business or its goods/services. If you’re feeling that the reviews on your brand are like that, you can sue the reviewer based on this claim. But you must state the following to prove your claim,
i) The review has caused direct damage to your brand.
ii) The review has been published to a third party like social media, review site, or online.
iii) The review is a false statement made about your brand, goods, or services.
iv) There was malice by the reviewer.
Can you sue someone for posting negative reviews on your business? Well, you can, but based on some criteria. And consulting with a proficient commercial litigation lawyer in Sydney can help you with that.
Author Bio: Author is a top commercial litigation lawyer in Sydney. For years, he’s helped many people to deal with several business issues. Alongside that, he’s also written many articles and blog posts on various related topics.
