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It can be a hard blow to any business owner to find negative false reviews on Google about their business. Reviews can have two effects on any business, namely to attract customers or drive them away. Having glowing reviews can do a lot in inviting potential customers and can also increase one’s ranking in search engines making the business more likely to be seen by consumers. Having negative reviews, on the other hand, can make it more difficult for a business to grow as customers will probably skeptical about doing business with a company with less than stellar reviews and there is also less chance of your business page showing up on top in search engine listings.

Show Professionalism

In the event that you do find false reviews on Google, the best way to handle it is with a cool head. You cannot let your emotions get the best of you as you want to approach the situation in a professional manner. If you suspect that the review is fake, you need to gather evidence first that the content is truly false and written by someone who wants to tarnish your reputation. You can mark the review as inappropriate and file a complaint with the publisher of Google. State your reasons why you believe the review is false and include any proof that you may have. The decision to remove the review is based solely on the discretion of the publisher and Google is known for ignoring such requests but it wouldn’t hurt to try anyway.

 Going to Court

If filing a complaint with Google’s website publisher doesn’t work, the next thing you can do is hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit in court. Google can deny any requests made by you but they are still obliged to comply if the order is coming from the court. Filing a lawsuit can help you accomplish two things, namely getting the false reviews on Google removed as well as finding the identity of the person who left the fake review. In case you do not know the identity of the writer, filing a lawsuit can help you obtain a court order to subpoena Google. Serving a subpoena to Google can help you get information about the user such as the email address being used as well as IP log information. Make sure though that your subpoena comes from California as this is where Google is located. Any subpoena coming elsewhere will be ignored by the company as part of their policy on subpoenas.

 Court Ruling

Once the court rules in your favor, Google has no choice but to remove the fake review from their website. You still need to serve a copy of the court ruling to Google though before they will be able to take any action. Google is protected by the Communications Decency Act which frees them from any liability that is incurred by their users and they are also firm on their stand when it comes to first amendment rights including the rights to privacy of their users. Google may be a hard egg to crack when it comes to helping you in defamation cases but going through the process with the correct legal proceedings can help a lot.

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