Courtesy of Mish.
Want to review a French restaurant? Only good reviews are allowed in France.
Caroline Doudet a blogger who runs the site “Cultur’elle,” found that out when she wrote a restaurant review that the French court said “ranked too high a in Google search” (as if any writer can know in advance how many times a blog will be read, or what its ranking will be).
Link to Cached Review of “Place to Avoid”
Doudet was ordered to change the title of her blog and pay a fine. Instead she took it down.
However, a cached version is still available, and I bet it gets even more hits now that the courts have piqued everyone’s interest.
Cached English translation: The place to avoid the Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino.
Neither the headline nor the article appears unreasonably inflammatory.
Doudet’s main charge is exceptionally poor service. It took numerous complaints to three sets of servers for Doudet to get drinks and an appetizer before her main course arrived.
$2,000 Fine
For her writeup, French Blogger Fined $2,000 for Restaurant Review, Too Prominent on Google.
A blogger eats in an Italian restaurant in southwestern France. She thinks the food is bad, the service even worse, and she writes up a review that is not glowing, to put it mildly.
It’s a scenario that plays out daily in the cyberworld. Hair in a dish of pasta? Many would snap a photo and share it on Twitter or Facebook. An insufferable waiter? Blog it out….
