Principal Marika Hubble-Marriott has been featured in an article in The Age, titled ‘'A knife to the heart': How fake reviews can hurt a business’.
The article looks at the growth of online reviews and how responding to them is a growing concern for businesses. Positive reviews have the potential to turbo charge sales while negative reviews can significantly deter customers.
The impact of online reviews is increasingly a legal battleground.
It's also an area of concern for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which has taken a number of enforcement actions against business over their handling of online reviews.
Marika Hubble-Marriott said, "If a review is on their platform they have obligations to moderate content and respond responsibly".
"What businesses can't do is self-censor reviews on their own platform as that can be misleading so you can't remove all the negative reviews and leave all the glowing ones”.
"If there is a negative review, and it is a valid and genuine review... there are ways to respond to it. But the ones that are defamatory or offensive ought to be removed or the business can be liable."
It becomes more difficult when fake or misleading reviews are posted on third party platforms in which case her advice is to issue a take-down notice under Australian Consumer Law.
"Reputation is so critical and it is in some respects more vulnerable than it has ever been because of the ability of someone to sit at home at a keyboard and damage your business," she says.
Read the full article here.
If you have any questions, please contact Marika Hubble-Marriott on 03 9609 1697.
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