Untrue negative reviews posted on the internet can have a detrimental impact on a company’s reputation. When companies face negative and damaging statements online, they may have legal remedies available to them. A person may fairly review the services or products which they received from a company, but sometimes a review is false and made with the intention to cause damage to the company.
Defamation occurs when one person wrongfully and intentionally publishes a false statement about another person, which causes damage to the defamed person’s reputation.
There are various remedies available to anyone who has been defamed. One may obtain an order to stop further defamatory statements from being published or to remove existing defamatory statements. In Dimension Data v Pearton, the Respondent was interdicted from publishing defamatory information about the Applicant and its employees on the Respondent’s website and other platforms. In Le Roux v Dey, the court ordered the Defendant to tender an unconditional apology to the Plaintiff. One may also claim compensation for the damages caused as a result of the publication of the defamatory statements.
