什麽是網絡毀譽：一顧客在網上批評加拿大酒店客房有臭蟲被酒店索賠$９５,０００網絡毀譽
一名酒店客戶在加拿大一間酒店住宿，發現bed bugs，該客戶抓住臭蟲，拍照，然後去前台交涉，因當天酒店滿員，酒店前台願意給４０，讓顧客到鄰近酒店入住，該客戶決定待在該酒店過夜，事後，該客戶 在網站tripadvisor.com上留下負麵評價（包括照片），酒店要求此人撤回負評，但仍然告上法庭網絡毀譽（defamation），索賠九萬五 千美元.
顧客能不能在網絡上自由地批評商家及個人的服務，有沒有極限，什麽是網絡毀譽，加拿大這個標誌性個案將對網絡名譽保護和個人言論自由有非常意義。
https://therebel.org/society/686032-nightmare-hotel-sues-man-for-reporting-bed-bugs
http://o.canada.com/2013/08/23/quebec-hotel-sues-former-guest-over-online-review/
QUEBEC CITY — In what is believed to be a legal first in Canada — and a potential landmark case that could help to define the limits of free speech in cyberspace — a hotel is suing a former guest for $95,000 in damages over a review he wrote on the travel site TripAdvisor.
It also wants the negative review, which is still online, taken down.
But the lawyer for the Montreal man who wrote the review says the “frivolous” defamation lawsuit will be quashed in court like the bedbugs her client claims he found in his room.
That’s not how the hotel sees it.
“Cleanliness is the name of the game in the hotel business,” said Quebec City lawyer William Noonan, who filed the motion in Quebec Superior Court here last month on behalf of l’Hôtel Québec.
“Hotel owners can’t be upset with someone who doesn’t like their service. But when people start yelling ‘Bedbugs!’ they’d better have proof.”
According to the motion, Montreal building contractor Laurent Azoulay checked into l’Hôtel Québec in the Quebec City suburb of Sainte-Foy on April 26 for a two-night stay with his son, who was playing in an atom hockey tournament.
The 204-room, four-star property is one of seven in the local Hôtels Jaro chain, which is owned by area businessman Jacques Robitaille.
“During the (first) night,” reads the motion, “the defendant claims to have discovered in his room a scourge for hotels around the world — bedbugs.”
The hotel, it adds, was unable to give Azoulay another room because it was fully booked that night.
It says Azoulay also refused to go to another of the chain’s hotels nearby (wanting to remain in the same hotel as his son’s hockey team) and returned to his room for the night.
The next morning, a Saturday, Azoulay allegedly insisted on meeting Robitaille to discuss the situation.
When that didn’t happen, he checked out of the hotel and threatened to write a bad review about the property on TripAdvisor.
Later that day, Azoulay posted a review on TripAdvisor about what he termed his “nightmare” stay at l’Hôtel Québec.
“At first this hotel looks okay,” it reads, “until you wake at 3AM (sic) because you’ve been scratching all over and realize your bed is infested with BED BUGS!”
Azoulay goes on to recount his version of events before issuing this warning:
“Beware of BED BUGS! If you are looking for a scratch-free night sleep, stay elsewhere, you will be doing you and your loved ones a favour! Trust me … and that’s why the Internet is a great tool!”
The review has received 176 votes from readers as being “helpful.”
It is also one of 16 “Terrible” reviews of l’Hôtel Québec on TripAdvisor, which ranks the hotel 62nd among 99 area hotels.
Azoulay’s review, however, is the only one that mentions bedbugs.
According to Noonan, the hotel decided to sue when Azoulay refused repeated requests for him to return to Quebec City and meet with Robitaille to resolve the issue.
“He made this big fuss and then he thinks he can just walk away,” Noonan told The Gazette. “But his actions have hurt the hotel a lot. We’ve had numerous people call and tell us they weren’t staying because of it, and cancel reservations.”
Noonan notably questioned Azoulay’s claim about bedbugs.
“There are 204 rooms in that hotel and it had never had a single complaint about bedbugs before that night,” he said. “If there were some there — and in his room only — how did they get there and where did they go?”
Noonan said he hasn’t heard of similar cases in Quebec or Canada.
However, a hotel in Illinois sued a Massachusetts couple for what it said was a false bedbug claim on TripAdvisor.com.
That case is still before the courts.
Though she refused to discuss details, Azoulay’s lawyer, Muriel Librati, said her client intends to fight the case, which is expected to be heard here in early December.
“The way he’s been treated is deplorable,” the Westmount lawyer said. “They are insisting my client put bedbugs in his room and that he is just trying to get money from them.”
Azoulay, she added, has pictures of bedbug bites on him and his son, as well as a video showing several bedbugs they caught and put in a glass before killing them.
“This case is frivolous,” Librati said. “TripAdvisor is an open forum for people to post reviews. Suing over a negative one is a perfect example of libel chill.”
Philippe Viel agrees.
“The court system is too complex, long and expensive as a recourse for an individual consumer who has suffered an injustice,” said Viel, director of communications for the Union des Consommateurs, a Montreal-based federation of 11 Quebec consumer protection groups.
Sites like TripAdvisor, he added, help to level the playing field.
“They give consumers more power by providing them with a fast, easy and free way to express their frustration and to get a company’s attention (and) hopefully get satisfaction,” Viel said.
The problem with online discussion groups and forums like TripAdvisor, he added, is the lack of control over the veracity of reviews.
“Like political parties do with blogs and opinion pieces, many businesses are now hiring people to write glowing reviews about them — or bad ones about their competitors,” Viel said.
He urged travellers to be cautious in regards to online reviews, and rely instead on travel professionals and travel guides for more accurate information.
Danielle Lefrançois, the communications manager in the Montreal office of Advertising Standards Canada, echoed that warning.
“The use of supposedly neutral blogs and forums on the Internet to promote goods and services is a big problem,” Lefrançois said.
She added that her group, a self-regulatory body run by the advertising industry that investigates complaints about the veracity of claims and testimonials on corporate websites, has never received any complaints about online review sites like TripAdvisor.
But she advises consumers to be wary when consulting them.
“Even honest reviews reflect individual opinion,” she said. “And people sometimes have unrealistic expectations and are easily disappointed.”
"In what is believed to be a legal first in Canada — and a potential landmark case that could help to define the limits of free speech in cyberspace — a hotel is suing a former guest for $95,000 in damages over a review he wrote on the travel site TripAdvisor.
It also wants the negative review, which is still online, taken down.
But the lawyer for the Montreal man who wrote the review says the "frivolous" defamation lawsuit will be quashed in court like the bedbugs her client claims he found in his room."*
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