Obtaining orders against Google LLC to reveal a fake reviewer

Catherine Ballantyne, a Principal of Hunt & Hunt, has obtained Federal Court orders against Google LLC to hand over information about one of its account holders in relation to a review left about a local Victorian business.

The Facts

• Catherine’s client had a Google review posted on their business page by someone using a pseudonym (a fake name).
• The Google review was written as if it were from a customer and made serious defamatory statements about Catherine’s client and their staff, while encouraging people not to use Catherine’s client’s business.
• Catherine’s client had no record of the person who posted the review as a customer.
• Catherine was approached to find a solution to deal with the review.

The Solution

Catherine Ballantyne:

• filed proceedings in the Federal Court against Google LLC to produce records of the Google account holder who posted the review;
• served Google LLC’s head office in the United States; and
• made detailed submissions demonstrating that:
  • there was an underlying claim against the reviewer, in this case in defamation and injurious falsehood; and
  • Google LLC was likely to hold information identifying the party Catherine’s client was seeking to sue.

The Orders

The Federal Court ordered Google LLC to produce all details it held identifying the user who had posted the review.

Who was the fake reviewer?

The documents produced by Google LLC pursuant to the Federal Court orders identified the reviewer as a competitor of Catherine’s client, not a customer as claimed in the review.

Conclusion

Even if you have to bring a court application against one of the biggest companies in the world, it is possible to succeed if you have a good claim and make the right submissions.

For further information, please contact Catherine Ballantyne, Principal, at [email protected] or +61 3 8602 9200.