Four years after the first facts, the Court of Appeal of Dijon for the first time gave reason to the owners of the Château de Balleure, a bed and breakfast in Etrigny, in Saône-et-Loire. In 2018 and 2020, two unfavorable opinions are left on Google Maps to their establishment… by people who have never stayed in the establishment according to them. On June 20, 2022, the Court ordered Google Ireland, the group’s European headquarters, to reveal the identities of the authors of its two opinions. The owners then want to file a complaint against them.
Easy to leave a review on Google
A rating of two stars out of five in 2018, then only one in 2020… this is the reason why the owners decide to attack Google. According to them, these people would have used the “push” function of Google Maps: when you pass by a place, the site offers to leave a review. No need to go there for that.
For now, this is only a first step: the Court of Appeal recognized that the managers of the bed and breakfast were entitled to know the identity of the authors of the reviews, in order to then be able to file a complaint. In the meantime, Google is ordered to pay them 2,000 euros and to pay the legal costs.
A lack of security for comments
Reviews and comments on the internet are becoming more and more important for accommodation establishments admits Laurent Clément, director of the Hôtel des Ducs and member of the Dijon hotel club. Comments in which we find everything and anything about these opinions: “sites like Google or Tripadvisor are not necessarily kind to us, they ignore all comments”.
According to him, “something is missing to regulate, to be able to say that an opinion is false or misleading”. On the Booking site, for example, you must first have booked in the establishment before leaving a comment or an opinion.