A blogger has been fined after leaving a negative review of a restaurant, due to it ranking highly in Google searches.
French blogger Caroline Doudet was forced to pay damages after a judge ruled that her blog post, titled “the place to avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino,” in favor of the restaurant’s owner, who claimed that the blog post’s prominence in the search engine’s results were harming his business.
Caroline’s fashion and literature blog’s large amount of followers was a large factor in the court’s decision, with the judge stating that Caroline’s 3000 followers would lead to her opinion having a significant impact upon the business. Writing on her blog, she complained about the restaurant’s poor service and the owner’s poor attitude – given that she’s now being forced to pay the restaurant €1,500 ($2,000) in damages due to the owner being unable to correctly handle criticism, it’s safe to assume that her opinion has not been swayed since her visit.
Speaking to Arret sur Internet, the restaurant’s manager said: “Maybe there were some errors in the service, that happens sometimes in the middle of August – I recognize that. But this article showed in the Google search results and did my business more and more harm, even though we have worked seven days a week for 15 years. I could not accept that.
“People can criticise, but there is a way of doing it – with respect. That was not the case here.”
It must be difficult to see your business being tarnished on the Internet, but a better way to deal with the criticism would’ve been to offer Caroline a free meal in return and ensure that she had a much more pleasant experience the next time round. As it stands, the owner has brought a lot of unwanted negative attention to his restaurant, which will likely prove to have a much larger impact on his business than the blogger’s opinions that he tried to bury.
[Via BBC]
Photo: Getty Images
