France: restaurant blogger fined

Blogger fined a total of €2,500 in damages and costs.


A French blogger was taken to court by a restaurant after she published a negative review of a restaurant with the title 'The place to avoid…'

The review was highly ranked on Google and the restaurant argued that its prominence in search results was harming its business.

The Judge ruled that the title of the article should be amended, but not the content. 

The bloggers stated the ruling "made it a crime to be highly ranked on search engines".

Sources: BBC; TheLocal France.