News Analysis: The legal perspective on ‘rogue reviews’
Duncan Bannatyne’s combatative manner is well known to fans of Dragon’s Den but has the Scottish fitness and leisure entrepreneur picked one fight too many with his assault on TripAdvisor?
The Drum contacted Campbell Deane, partner in law firm Bannatyne Kirkwood France & Co (no relation) to get a legal perspective on the situation.
Deane said: “What used to be called ‘fair comment’ is now called ‘honest comment’ after the House of Lords rebranded it at the tail end of last year. The only way he’d succeed is if he was able to establish that the comment was not honest.”
Establishing what is honest and what isn’t is notoriously difficult noted Deane: “If a review mentioned the bathroom was dirty they could prove honest comment by presenting logged comments to that effect made during a stay.
“If on the other hand they had alleged that a meal had to be sent back three times but the restaurant staff were able to say that this was not the case then that would clearly not be honest comment.”
In such a scenario the author, editor and publisher would all be liable for damages, with Bannatyne able to go against all three, notes Deane.
“In their defence TripAdvisor could argue that they are merely a conduit for the information but that would depend on whether or not they were looking at every post”, Deane added.