This needs to be stopped by the courts and those doing it hit with punitive costs. Leaving an honest bad review is not defamation.
A cosmetic surgery chain has sparked a backlash after suing customers who left bad reviews online.
Signature Clinics has come under fire after threatening to silence critics and disgruntled former patients.
Kate Kronenbach is being sued for up to £10,000 after being left disappointed with her arm-lift surgery in April 2022 and posting a negative review on Trustpilot about it in May of this year.
The 51-year-old carer said she was ‘intimidated’ by the alleged lawsuit being launched by Signature, which is one of country’s largest cosmetic surgery chains.
She told MailOnline: ‘The whole experience has deeply affected my mental health. I’ve sought help with that from my GP. I’m an unpaid carer and so need my wits about me 24/7. As you can imagine that in itself is stressful without the fear of being sued.’
If you provide a service to the public, bad reviews come with the territory. If it is genuine, then suck it up. If not, you can usually get ti taken down if you can provide evidence that it is in bad faith. But to sue over it is at the best over the top, but at worst, it looks like intimidation.
The Free Speech Union (FSU) is now assisting Ms Kronenbach and three others facing defamation proceedings as well as two accused of harassment in county court proceedings. All but one are former patients.
The FSU claimed the actions were strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps) typically brought by corporations or individuals – like journalists – with the intention of harassing, intimidating opponents by abusing the legal system.
Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, told MailOnline: ‘Unhappy customers should be able to tell people about their bad experiences on sites like Trustpilot without fear of being sued for defamation.
The FSU is generally getting good results in the courts when taking on bullies, so hopefully this will go the same way, but there needs to be action on Slapps. The court hitting these people in the pocket would be one way of concentrating their minds. All that said, they have now brought a whole load of bad publicity on their own heads. Who is going to want to use them after this? I wouldn’t.
I think that this will be an example of the Streisand effect.
I hope it will. They deserve to go bust.
At least in the UK the judge can award costs to the defendant if they consider the case to be “vexatious”. Nothing to stop them appealing against the judgement but that woul dbe more of their money down a rat hole.
Arm lift surgery? I suppose that a full time carer might find it hard to find time to get to the gym. My wife and her sister share a personal trainer, they have a weekly hour long session and then practice their routine twice more during the week. They jokingly refer to one of the gym machines as the bingo wings machine. When sister isn’t available I have sometimes accompanied wife on the various gym machines. To start with I found the workouts relatively easy but she’s been doing this stuff for a couple of years now while I’ve concentrated on swimming. Now she’s getting really strong and the routines are getting quite tough for me who only does them occasionally rather than three times a week. As for cosmetic surgery, maybe she needs to check out whoever does the work for Cher who currently looks better than she did in 1965. I’m wondering if she has actually died and been replaced by an android.
On t’Internet with a ton of filters, maybe, but in person, not so much. In person she appears like a “Well preserved” 75.
Given the numerous plastic surgeries she’s had maybe “pickled” would be a closer euphamism?