French inn owner sues Google over alleged fake reviews on Maps

After eight years of battling fake online feedback, Raoul Salama, proprietor of the boutique hotel Le Château de Balleure in Burgundy, has filed an accelerated legal action against Google in a French court. He contends that two one- and two-star reviews posted in 2018 and 2020 were fabricated, causing a ten-percent rating drop and an estimated thirty-percent loss in turnover. Salama says the reviewers never visited the inn; they received a push notification from Google Maps inviting them to rate the venue.

Although a Dijon appellate court ordered Google to reveal the reviewers’ identities in June 2022, the tech giant delayed compliance, and the offending reviews were only removed after several years, only to reappear later with additional fake entries. Legal experts and a former U.S. federal investigator note that up to 45 % of online comments may be bogus, highlighting a broader problem for digital trust. Salama aims to create French case law similar to recent German rulings that force Google to verify reviews, arguing that current EU digital service regulations are not being effectively enforced.