A judge in France has decided to rule against Caroline Doudet, a French blogger whose negative restaurant review was reported due to being “too prominent” in it’s Google search ranking. The judge’s order was that the title of the blog post had to be changed and Ms Doudet had to pay damages to the owners of the restaurant.
The decision was incredibly controversial due to the fact that it’s suggesting a high search ranking is a crime. Many people have questioned the validity of the order, and bloggers across the globe have spoken out in anger.
The claim put forward by the owners said that the strong prominence of the article was an unfair harm to their business, seeing as it portrayed them in a negative light and cost them valued customers.
The blog post that was made by Ms Doudet was called “The Place To Avoid in Cap-Ferret”, followed by the name of the restaurant, II Giardino. It’s located in southwestern France’s Aquitaine region.
The court’s documents stated that the review had featured 4th in the results when you searched for the name of the restaurant. The decision that the judge came to was that the title had to be altered, so the “place to avoid” was not as prominent in the results of a search.
The harm put forward on the restaurant was pointed out by the judge sitting in Bordeaux, who said that it was exacerbated by the blogger’s 3,000 followers on her literature and fashion blog. A famous blogger from Bristol has spoken out in outrage to his 5000+/- followers on Twitter.
Her article, which has now been removed, stated that there was a generally poor service and negative attitude on behalf of the restaurant’s owner when she visited the shop in August 2013. The owner found the entire article to be an issue, but the judge decided to just rule that the title be changed and a fine was sent to Ms Doudet.
