Court of Rome blacks out fake reviews: 'It's unfair competition'

Obscure 221 negative reviews apparently false and in any case 'functionally aimed at discrediting' the competitor company. The Court of Rome (27285 /2024, Precautionary Measures, Corbo) upheld the urgent appeal of a debt restructuring company - Reparadora Italia - recognising the fumus of "unfair competition" via the web perpetrated by a Veneto-based company (Difesa Debitori) and its sole director, with the facilitation of the Danish reviews platform Trustpilot.

The order issued at the end of October - with a complaint currently pending before the panel - validated Reparadora's version, according to which 'GoBravo' (the name of its profile on Trustpilot) had been targeted by fake comments of the tenor of 'a company that conducts a non-transparent, illicit, economically unstable business' as well as various memes with offensive content. A party consultancy notes that 'only nine of the persons identified were actually customers of GoBravo' whose names appear in the database and 'only 17 reviewers can be traced back to natural persons existing and active on the web'. The analysis carried out by the investigative psychology unit of the party's consultant revealed the probable existence of a small group (also from a lexical point of view) of 'digital guessers'.

As for the digital intermediary (Trustpilot), writes the judge, 'it is pointed out by the plaintiff that after having received numerous reports from Reparadora, it did not take any concrete measures to protect the complainant company (...) refusing, moreover, also in violation of Article 1375 of the Civil Code in the execution of the contract with Reparadora, to share with the latter the documentation acquired from the allegedly verified GoBravo reviewers'. In the March-May quarter, the plaintiff opened more than 300 tickets (reviews) with Trustpilot. Hence the obscuramento order, which "must, however, be limited to the reviewers, articles and references that are actually defamatory and not to the entire site," wrote the precautionary magistrate.

The issue of fake reviews is addressed by the Ddl Pmi that went through its first reading at the Cdm on 23 December, which envisages the possibility of reviewing only services that have actually been purchased and no later than15 days, demonstrating identity and use. The right to obtain cancellation if the comment is misleading, untruthful or excessive, and if thereview is no longer current, two years have elapsed, or for taking appropriate measures to overcome the judgement.