Google, sued by a Saône-et-Loire guesthouse, believes it has no reliable means of determining whether review authors have actually frequented the establishments they evaluate. A case that revives the debate about the responsibility of platforms in the face of misleading comments.
A pension in conflict with Google for eight years
On October 12, Google defended before the Chalon-sur-Saône judicial court its ability to manage reviews published about its services. “Google doesn’t check reviews. It’s impossible”argued Sébastien Proust, the group’s lawyer, considering that there is no reliable way to know if an Internet user has actually used the services of an establishment.
At the origin of the dispute, the Castle of Balleure, a two-room guest house located in Étrigny, in Saône-et-Loire. In 2018 and again in 2020, the property received two poor ratings on Google Maps. Following a judicial procedure, the Dijon Court of Appeal ordered the disclosure of the identity of the authors in June 2022. When contacted, they admitted that they had never stayed at the guesthouse. They reportedly received a Google Maps notification inviting them to note the location when they were simply passing by.
Owner Raoul Salama says the poor ratings have had major consequences on his business. His lawyer, Frédéric Hopgood, denounces the reappearance of the contested opinions and the presence of fifteen more controversial comments. According to him, it would have taken Google between 39 and 43 months to eliminate the first two reviews.
A disagreement over the definition of a fake review
For Google, a person can legitimately evaluate a place without having consumed a service there, such as a monument seen during a walk. The defense also believes that systematic monitoring would require considerable resources and could lead dissatisfied professionals to demand the removal of negative reviews. The company considers the phenomenon to be marginal, an assessment questioned by American expert Kay Dean, who considers it massive.
Google indicated that it had removed 292 million fake reviews in 2025. This volume illustrates the magnitude of moderation operations, without allowing the total proportion of fraudulent comments to be measured alone. Google also claims to be developing automated tools to detect suspicious reviews.
In France, online review managers must inform users of their monitoring methods and offer professionals a free way to report a review whose authenticity is in doubt. consumer law forbidden Also fake reviews intended to mislead customers.
The castle’s lawyer calls for greater human control and accuses Google of not acting sufficiently against misleading comments. The court reserved its decision until January 12, 2027. The ruling should shed light, in particular, on the platform’s responsibilities in this matter.
