French must pay damages for prominent negative review

A French court has sentenced a blogger to €1500 in damages because a negative review of a restaurant appeared too high in Google search results. She also needs to change the title of the review.

The review by blogger, Caroline Doudet, came up fourth in the search for the restaurant reviewed, BBC News reports. The review title advised visitors to avoid the restaurant; that was against the sore leg of the owner of the restaurant. He acknowledged that there had been “issues” with the quality of the restaurant, but he said the high-ranking review caused him too much damage.

The judge agrees, and has ordered Doudet to pay compensation of 1500 euros and to adjust the title of the review so that the advice to avoid the restaurant was less clear. Instead, Doudet deleted the review; she has indicated that she will not appeal.

The judge ruled in summary proceedings, in which a case is handled quickly and not all interests are weighed up in detail. According to lawyers, there is therefore no precedent. So companies can’t go to court with the ruling in hand to tackle high-ranking, negative search results.