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Travellers could be sued for hotel rants
(News Item #0181, Published: 10/12/09) News.Com.au
- Lawyers warn against online rants
- Cases can be "extremely expensive"
TRAVELLERS who post scathing reviews or comments about hotels or restaurants could be exposing themselves to long and costly legal battles.
Media lawyer David Poulton, from MinterEllison Lawyers, said people making defamatory comments on sites such Tripadvisor and Twitter have little protection from the websites concerned.
He said there had been many cases where restaurant reviewers had been sued for harsh reviews in newspapers and magazines, and amateurs were also vulnerable.
"There's plenty of cases where what's been published on the internet has led to defamation proceedings," Mr Poulton said.
"In cases involving defamation law in some ways the exposure to damages might be the least of their worries because they're often extremely expensive and time consuming. They can drag on for months, if not years.
"You're certainly talking about hundreds of thousands in potential legal expenses and damages.
Asterion of Adelaide "You will probably find that most of these sites won't protect you and if they get sued as well, there will probably be terms and conditions that require you to indemnify them."
Mr Poulton also said people were not as anonymous as they thought they were when posting comments online.
"You can hope to get some degree of anonymity but if someone wants to complain about you they could track you down," he said.
Under Australia's libel laws, which cover written defamation, it is now extremely difficult for companies with more than 10 employees, such as large hotel chains, to sue.
But if the review deals with a small company - such as a family-owned bed and breakfast - there is the possibility of defamation.
If you defame an individual within a larger company, such as a hotel manager, that individual may decide to sue.
"People perhaps are not quite aware of the amount of power they have," Mr Poulter said.
"They may think their little story or clip on YouTube was just a bit of fun, but the power of the internet is it can be seen around the world.
"Individuals have the power to damage someone's reputation or put them out of business.
"That might not be their intention, but one of the things about defamation is your intention is irrelevant."
Associate Professor Barbara McDonald, of the University of Sydney, said people could be subject to the defamation laws of any country where their comment was downloaded.
"You could be subject to multiple defamation laws," she said.
"Your comment must be based on true facts and it's often hard to prove truth so you have to be careful.
"If you said a hotel was infested with cockroaches and it wasn't that could be defamatory."
Tripadvisor and Twitter did not respond to inquiries but a spokeswoman for social networking site Facebook said there was no obligation on behalf of the platform in terms of the comments users were making.