Blogger fined for restaurant review

[RainfallWithin]

 

Quotes from BBC News source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28331598

 

 

A French judge has ruled against a blogger because her scathing restaurant review was too prominent in Google search results.

 

The judge ordered that the post's title be amended and told the blogger Caroline Doudet to pay damages.

 

Ms Doudet said the decision made it a crime to be highly ranked on search engines.

 

The restaurant owner said the article's prominence was unfairly hurting his business.

 

Ms Doudet was sued by the owner of Il Giardino restaurant in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France after she wrote a blogpost entitled "the place to avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino".

 

According to court documents, the review appeared fourth in the results of a Google search for the restaurant. The judge decided that the blog's title should be changed, so that the phrase: "the place to avoid" was less prominent in the results.

 

The judge sitting in Bordeaux also pointed out that the harm to the restaurant was exacerbated by the fact that Ms Doudet's fashion and literature blog "Cultur'elle" had around 3,000 followers, indicating she thought it was a significant number.

 

<Edit: text has been cut to shorten the article>

 

"This decision creates a new crime of 'being too highly ranked [on a search engine]', or of having too great an influence'," Ms Doudet told the BBC.

 

"What is perverse, is that we look for bloggers who are influential, but only if they are nice about people," she added.

 

The judge told Ms Doudet to amend the title of the blog and to pay €1,500 ($2,000; £1,200).

 

In her article, which has now been deleted, she complained of poor service and what she said was a poor attitude on the part of the owner during a visit in August 2013.

 

The owner took issue with the whole article. However, the judge limited her decision to its title.

 

<Edit: text has been cut to shorten the article>

 

Ms Doudet added that, because the decision was taken at an emergency hearing, she did not have time to find legal representation, so had represented herself in court.

 

 

Personal Thoughts

 

This court decision is completely disgraceful. It will encourage other businesses to sue as well if they receive negative reviews that they deserve. Not only that, the blogger in question has absolutely no control where her article is ranked in search results.

[flibberdipper]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

That's fucking stupid.

[CtW]

Yay people being retarded Yay!

[Imabigmac]

so free speech doesn't exist anymore in France, hmmmmmmmmm

[SovietOnion]

Wow, I worked at a restaurant for about 7 months, seems like something the people I worked for would do. Reminds me of that Amazon router review that ended in a fine and house warrant for the product. 

[ForsakenLive]

This makes me want to eat even less on II Giardino. Nobody should go to this place anymore.

Everyone is entitled to write an opinion on a product or service, even if it kills the business. That's how free speech works. 

[Misanthrope]

Who the fuck appointed that stupid judge? THAT is my question.

[RatedBlam]

Maybe it should be illegal to be that stupid and that high ranked in the legal system.

[Imabigmac]

This makes me want to eat even less on II Giardino. Nobody should go to this place anymore.

Everyone is entitled to write an opinion on a product or service, even if it kills the business. That's how free speech works. 

yes, now go make a Reddit tread, and a Facebook + twitter notice and before you know that restaurant will be dead. 

[ToxicFire]

Que the Streisand Effect  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

[Panda689]

This is actually sickening to read, and that she had to represent herself no less. GG Il Giardino you probably just made more people hate you because of your bully tactics, then one highly viewed review.

[Nineshadow]

Who the fuck appointed that stupid judge? THAT is my question.

Oh, everything can be done.

Our president got a man into an...uh..asylum(where people with mental problems are held) because that man spitted the president.

So yeah...

Our president is a retard...too bad he has very powerful people supporting him,because otherwise he'd be long gone.He brokes the Constitution like every week.Once he even threatened with death a man(live on TV) because of things his wife was doing(his husband was the leverage).Not to mention he took part in a political party's propaganda,which is considered illegal in the Constitution.(This was happening while the Russians were threatening to bomb Romania...so yeah)

[ForsakenLive]

yes, now go make a Reddit tread, and a Facebook + twitter notice and before you know that restaurant will be dead. 

I'll leave that to the French 

[Misanthrope]

Oh, everything can be done.

Our president got a man into an...uh..asylum(where people with mental problems are held) because that man spitted the president.

So yeah...

 

Oh I know I'm from Mexico, Government officials and even Mayors of towns have been assassinated by drug lords which tells you pretty much they're in their pockets, taking shake downs straight out of tax payer's pockets.

[DigiKing]

Well so much for freedom of speech. Technological illiteracy is to blame here. Explaining the internet to an old person is like explaining science to republicans.

[Guest Kloaked]

They should have just sued Google.

 

 

 

 

Oh wait, Google would have spanked them in the court.

[The_Strict_Nein]

tempted to create 100 spam web pages all posting the original article with title.

[pixeldensity]

Why have something called a review if people can't put negative reviews without getting sued. Like the saying goes if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen.