Where Google reviews are published on a business's Google My Business page and require multiple steps to access (searching, clicking through, sorting reviews), a court may infer that those who read the reviews were customers or potential customers with a relevant interest for the purposes of s 30(1)(a) of the Defamation Act 2005, particularly where there is no direct evidence of readership. A consumer who publishes reviews after conducting reasonable investigations into the subject matter of the review, and whose dominant motive is to inform prospective customers of their experience, may establish the defence of statutory qualified privilege even where some posts were made under false names or on inappropriate platforms.
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