Google review defamation in Ireland is decided by the same statute as every other defamation claim: the Defamation Act 2009 as amended by the Defamation (Amendment) Act 2026, in force since 1 March 2026. What makes a review case different is that two questions have to be answered before anyone writes a letter: is the review an honest opinion or a false statement of fact, and, if the business is a company, has it caused serious harm? This page takes those questions first, then the platform route, the letter, the identification order and the orders the Circuit Court can make. It starts, as every claim does, with the exact words, the account that posted them and the date.
Google Review Defamation Ireland: Opinion or False Fact?
Section 6 defines one tort of defamation: a statement that tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society, published to at least one person other than the plaintiff, that identifies the plaintiff. A review on a business listing is published to everyone who searches for the business, and it identifies the business by definition, so the contest is almost always over the words. A one-star review that says the food was cold and the service slow is an opinion about an experience, and section 20 gives the author a defence of honest opinion where the opinion was honestly held and based on facts that were true or indicated. A review that says the plumber took a deposit and never came back, that the clinic is unregistered, or that the shop sells counterfeit stock is an allegation of fact, and section 16 puts the burden of proving it true on the author. The third category is the review written by someone who was never a customer at all: a competitor, a former employee, an ex-partner, a stranger paid to post. There every factual element is false, and the first task is to prove the absence of any transaction from your own job book, invoices and booking records.
If the Business Is a Company: Serious Harm (Section 12)
Since 1 March 2026 a statement about a body corporate is not defamatory unless it has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to its reputation, and for a body trading for profit that means serious financial loss. There is no serious harm test for individuals, so a sole trader reviewed under a trading name sues as a person and need not prove loss at all. A limited company must show it: the bookings that stopped, the quotes that were accepted and then withdrawn, the enquiries that fell away after the review appeared, the customer who said why. Where a review names the owner or a director as well as the company, that person may have the stronger claim. The test is explained in full in our guide to the serious harm test for companies.
How to Remove a Fake Google Review: The Platform First
Report to the platform first. The Digital Services Act, in force since 17 February 2024, requires platforms to run notice-and-action systems, so a reasoned notice that identifies the review by its URL, states why it is unlawful and gives your contact details must be considered and answered. Coimisiún na Meán is Ireland’s Digital Services Coordinator and enforces the Online Safety Code for video-sharing platforms. Two cautions. Platforms apply their own content policies, which are written for fake engagement and conflicts of interest rather than for Irish defamation law, so a review that is defamatory but reads as a genuine experience is often left up. And a report is not a claim: nothing you send to a platform stops the one-year clock in section 38. Keep the submission and the decision, because both go into the solicitor’s letter. The practical steps, in order, are in a fake Google review is damaging my business.
The Solicitor’s Letter
Where the reviewer can be identified, a letter does most of the work. It sets out the words, the facts that make them false with the documents that prove it, the evidence that the review has caused or is likely to cause loss, the removal and correction sought, and the date by which the author must respond. It is written with the defences in mind, because the reply from the author or their solicitor will raise honest opinion first and truth second. Under sections 22 and 23, an author who makes an offer of amends must correct and apologise with the same or similar prominence as the original, which for a review means deleting or correcting it where it appears, and section 24 allows an apology to be given without it being an admission of liability. Many review matters end here. A letter is quoted as a fixed sum after the consultation, as our fees page explains.
Anonymous Reviewers: Identification Orders (Section 45)
The reviewer who posts under an invented name was, until March 2026, protected by the cost of a High Court Norwich Pharmacal application. Section 45 now lets the Circuit Court order an intermediary — the platform, host or provider — to disclose information identifying the author where the interests of justice require it, and the court may order the applicant to pay the intermediary’s costs. Because Google and the other major platforms run their European operations from Dublin, the order lands on a Dublin-registered company. The application needs the review captured with its URL and date, the account name, evidence that the review is false and that it has caused harm, and a short account of what you have already done to find the author. The route is set out on our page on identifying anonymous posters and in how to identify an anonymous troll.
Trustpilot Defamation and Other Review Sites
The law is the same whether the review sits on Google, Trustpilot, a trade directory, a booking site or a forum: one tort under section 6, honest opinion under section 20, serious harm for a company under section 12. Each site has its own flagging route and its own policy on reviews it cannot verify, and each is an intermediary for the purposes of a section 45 order. What differs is the evidence. Some sites hold the reviewer’s order reference or email address, some verify purchases, some hold nothing more than an account name, and that decides whether the author can be found by a letter to the site or only by a court order. The first consultation establishes what the site is likely to hold before anything is sent.
Court: Declaratory, Correction and Prohibition Orders
Where a letter fails, the Circuit Court, whose jurisdiction in defamation is €75,000, can make a declaratory order under section 28 that the review was false and defamatory, without damages; a correction order under section 30; and a prohibition order under section 33 against further publication. For a business whose real aim is to have the review gone and a public finding that it was false, the section 28 order is often the whole strategy, and it is the finding that supports a later request to delist search results. Damages under section 31 are also available, and the High Court, sitting without a jury for actions commenced on or after 1 March 2026, has unlimited jurisdiction. Before anything issues, section 34K requires your solicitor to inform you of the specified ADR options and file a statutory declaration with the originating document. Court proceedings carry a risk of being ordered to pay the other side’s costs if the claim fails, and that risk is explained in writing first; most Circuit Court claims settle before hearing. The claim must be brought within one year of first publication under section 38, and because section 11 gives one cause of action for all publications of the same statement, a review that is still live does not restart the clock.
What a Defamatory Review Solicitor Establishes First
Whether the review is opinion or fact; whether, for a company, serious harm can be shown; whether the author can be identified from your own records or needs a section 45 order; whether a platform notice, a letter or a Circuit Court order is the right first step; the costs risk; and the date by which proceedings must issue. Bring the review captured with the URL and date visible, the account name, your customer records for the period, the platform’s response to your report, and the evidence of lost business. Some businesses leave knowing that a letter is all they need; some leave knowing that the review, however damaging, is an opinion the law protects, which is also worth knowing before spending anything more. The Defamation Claim Checker runs the elements before you call.
A Review That Is Costing You Customers?
Bring the review, the account name and your records. One consultation establishes whether it is opinion or false fact, whether serious harm can be shown, and the route to removal.
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