Woman fined $1000 for online review

Apparently, the customer isn't always right.

A Staten Island woman who posted negative online reviews about a Grant City floor refinishing business was ordered to pay $1,000 in fines, a judge ruled earlier this month.
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In reviews posted to Yelp and the business listings page of SILive.com, where Fanelli had originally discovered the company, she referred to the owner as a "liar" and a "con artist," according to court documents.
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Staten Island Civil Court Judge Philip S. Straniere agreed that some of Fanelli's posts had constituted libel, and ordered that she pay Gardiner $1,000 in damages.

"Terms such as 'scam,' 'con artist' and 'robs' imply actions approaching criminal wrongdoing rather than someone who failed to live up to the terms of a contract," Straniere wrote.

"They were personal in their invective and were designed to impugn his integrity and business practices with the intent to damage his business reputation," the judge said.

Despite the equally damaging effect on business, this is quite different from a bad review that says any variant of “I didn’t like this hostel.” That is a personal opinion about a paid service from an unsatisfied customer.

I remember some other lawsuits from 2009 and 2010 regarding hotels suing over negative reviews.