Metro Vancouver business wins defamation lawsuit over bad Google review
The owners of a construction business based in Coquitlam recently won damages after going to the BC Supreme Court about a defamatory Google review.
The review wasn’t left by a customer. The angry reviewer was a man who was upset that one of the business’s employees hit and damaged his car.
The man learned the vehicle was associated with Pacific Granite Manufacturing Ltd. by reviewing CCTV footage of the collision.
The man met with the company’s owner in 2021, who said the incident had nothing to do with the company. They urged the man to take the matter up with ICBC.
In October 2021, a negative Google review was posted to the granite company’s page, urging others never to do business with it.
The company’s owners launched a defamation lawsuit seeking $105,000 in damages.
A BC Supreme Court judge reviewed the case this week and decided to award $4,000 in damages. The judge agreed the Google review was defamatory, particularly when it alleged that employees of the company had “lied to the end.”
The judge declined to award aggravated or punitive damages, instructing the man to pay $2,000 to the company owner, $1,000 to a company employee, and $1,000 to the company itself.