What happens if a business decides to take legal action?
In the case of D’Season, the company sent Ms Wu a letter of demand in April 2022 asking her to remove the post and publish an apology.
Ms Wu said she deleted the post a few days later but did not apologise.
Lawyers CNA spoke to confirmed that they are seeing more cases of businesses taking action against negative reviewers. In some cases, some negative reviews come from individuals who are not even customers, they added.
If served with a letter of demand, Mr Sivakumar encouraged individuals to read it carefully and understand what the business wants them to do.
They should then go back and read their review or comments, and see if they can justify it, he added.
If the individual has evidence, they can write back to the lawyers with it and stand by what they said if it is true. Similarly, if they believe they made a fair comment, they can reply that their review or comments were based on their honest opinions.
In defamation cases, the general advice to those being sued is that unless they can justify their comments and the other party accepts this, they should not spend money taking the case to court and incurring legal charges, said Mr Sivakumar.
“It is always better to resolve such matters amicably, and there are many avenues open to resolving such matters amicably,” he said, adding that mediation is also an option.
Most defamation cases are settled out of court, said Mr Tan, adding that “it’s not worth really fighting it out in court.”
Sometimes, businesses do not want to take the legal route because it may make matters worse, he said, noting that some may choose to instead issue media statements over taking negative reviewers to court.
“Typically, what businesses want is for the post to be removed and maybe an apology.”
