Chapter 7 of 7 · On the receiving end · 2 of 4
Sued over a review you wrote: honest opinion, truth and the company's hurdle
Checked 9 October 2026, Defamation Act 2009 as amended.
A letter or claim over a review you posted. Honest opinion and truth, what turns a review into a statement of fact, the offer of amends, and the serious-financial-loss test a company must meet.
Written for the person, shop or business accused of defamation. This guide covers the Republic of Ireland.
You wrote a review, and now a letter from a solicitor, or worse, has arrived. This guide is written for you, the reviewer. It explains whether a business can bring a claim over a review, which of your words are protected and which are not, what the letter means, what an offer of amends is, and where the platform stands. The business's side of the same question, including the serious-financial-loss test in detail, is at Can a company sue for a bad review? Ireland 2026.
Can a company bring a claim over a review?
Yes, it can. Two things have to be said straight after that. First, since 1 March 2026 a body corporate must show that the statement caused, or is likely to cause, serious financial loss, a test introduced by the Defamation (Amendment) Act 2026 and tracked at the rule-change tracker. Second, that hurdle does not apply where the business is a sole trader, because a sole trader is an individual and an individual does not have to prove any financial loss.
So the first question is who is complaining: a limited company, which has the hurdle; a sole trader or the partners in a partnership, who do not; or a named owner or member of staff, who claims as an individual if the review identifies them.
Is a review a defamatory statement at all?
Under s.6 of the Defamation Act 2009 a defamatory statement is one that tends to injure a person's reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society. It must be published to at least one person other than the plaintiff, and it must identify, or be understood to refer to, the plaintiff. A review on a public platform is published, and it names the business, so those two elements are usually present. The argument is almost always about the first: does what you wrote tend to injure reputation, and if so, is it fact or opinion?
A negative review is not defamatory because it is negative. Saying you did not enjoy a meal, that you found a service slow or that you would not go back is your assessment of your own experience. What may be defamatory is an assertion about what the business did: an accusation of dishonesty, a claim that it charged for work it did not do, a claim that it broke the law, or a statement about a named individual's character or competence. The guide at Four things to prove in a defamation claim takes the elements one by one.
Fact versus opinion
The two defences a reviewer leans on are honest opinion (s.20) and truth (s.16). They work differently.
Honest opinion protects a statement of opinion that you honestly held. The test is how the words read to a reasonable reader, not what you intended. If a reasonable reader would take a sentence as your view of your experience, it reads as opinion. If they would take it as a report of something that happened, it reads as fact, however you meant it.
Truth protects a statement of fact that is substantially true. The burden is on you to prove it, which is why the receipts, messages, photographs, booking confirmations and dates behind your review matter so much. A true account of a bad experience is defensible; an account you cannot prove is exposed. The guide at Defamation if true, no names, or allegedly? deals with the three questions people ask about truth, and the evidence kit at the evidence kit shows what to gather.
Fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest (s.26) is a third possibility for a review that raises a genuine public concern. Since 2026 it needs public interest, a reasonable belief that publication was in the public interest, and good faith. The defences guide at Defamation defences in Ireland covers all of them.
What makes a review risky
| Kind of content | Why it carries risk | What makes it safer |
|---|---|---|
| Your own experience, as experience | Low risk: this reads as opinion | Keep it to what you saw, paid and felt |
| A specific factual assertion about what the business did | Reads as fact; you must prove it true | Evidence you can produce: receipts, messages, photographs |
| An accusation of dishonesty or crime | Tends to injure reputation; hardest to prove | Describe what happened rather than labelling it |
| Something another customer told you | Repeating an allegation is a publication, and "allegedly" does not change that | Write only about what you can show |
| A named employee's character or competence | That person may claim as an individual, with no loss hurdle | Describe the service, not the person |
| Updating or re-posting the review | Your own re-publication is covered by the same cause of action under s.11, but an edit that adds a new assertion adds new risk | Edit to remove assertions you cannot prove, not to add them |
The letter, and what to do in the first week
A solicitor's letter is a demand, not a court order, and not a finding. The guide at Solicitor's letter for defamation: what to do covers it in full; the points specific to a review are these.
- Keep a dated copy of the review exactly as posted, with its URL, before you touch it.
- Separate the sentences. Mark each one as experience, opinion or fact. For each factual sentence, note what evidence you have. This is the exercise a solicitor will do with you, and doing it first saves time at €250 to €400 an hour (Irish Times, April 2026, a planning assumption).
- Decide what to do with the review. Many people edit it to remove factual assertions they cannot prove and leave the opinion standing, or take it down while they consider the letter. Neither step ends a claim that has already accrued, but conduct after a letter is something the court weighs on costs.
- Do not post about the letter, reply on the platform or repeat the statement anywhere else. A repeat is a fresh publication.
- Note the clock. A claim must be brought within one year of the date the review was first capable of being viewed, extendable to two years only where the interests of justice require it. The date on the letter tells you how much time the business has left; see When the defamation clock starts online.
Under s.24 an apology is not an admission of liability. A short, civil correction or apology for a sentence you got wrong is often the end of the matter, and it costs you nothing in law.
The offer of amends
If you accept that part of what you wrote was wrong, the Act gives you a formal way to close the dispute. An offer of amends under ss.22 and 23 contains a correction, an apology and compensation, either agreed or fixed by the court. If the business accepts it, the dispute ends on those terms. If it rejects the offer, the offer is a defence at trial unless you knew the statement was false when you wrote it. The court also weighs conduct after an offer when fixing costs, and the Supreme Court in Higgins v Irish Aviation Authority [2022] IESC 13 upheld a 10% reduction in damages where an offer of amends had been made. A lodgment under s.29, a sum paid into court, puts similar pressure on a plaintiff who goes to trial and does no better.
An offer of amends has consequences for the whole case, so it is prepared by a solicitor. This guide describes what one contains and does not draft one. The step-by-step guide is at Defamation apology and offer of amends Ireland.
The company's hurdle
Since 1 March 2026 a company must show that your review caused, or is likely to cause, serious financial loss. The Act does not set a figure and none is published. A company would have to produce something like turnover before and after, cancelled bookings, or customers who said the review changed their mind, and connect that to your review rather than to a competitor, a price rise or the season. A single review among dozens is a harder case for the company than the only review on the page. None of that applies if the business is a sole trader. The company guide at Can a company sue for a bad review? Ireland 2026 sets out what the evidence looks like from their side.
Where the platform stands
The platform that hosted your review is not on your side or the company's. Under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act every hosting service must offer an electronic notice route, and a business that believes a review is illegal can send a notice saying why, where the review is, who they are and that the notice is sent in good faith. Coimisiún na Meán is the Digital Services Coordinator. The platform may then remove the review. That is a decision by the host, which has its own innocent publication defence under s.27, and it is not a finding against you.
If you posted anonymously, note that since 1 March 2026 the Circuit Court can order an online intermediary to disclose who posted a statement, where that is in the interests of justice and the interest in disclosure outweighs the interests against it. The guide at Identification orders for anonymous accounts covers that order, and Fake Google reviews and defamation in Ireland covers reviews from both sides.
What it could cost you
Every figure here is a planning assumption, not a tariff. A solicitor's reply to a letter is €300 to €1,000. Opening a Circuit Court case is about €1,500 plus VAT and upwards on one practitioner's published estimate; a contested Circuit Court trial is €10,000 to €30,000 a side; the High Court is a multiple of that. Costs follow the event: if the company's claim fails it normally pays your costs, and if it succeeds you pay damages and most of its costs. Most claims settle within the €75,000 Circuit Court limit, and the Supreme Court's bands in Higgins put moderate cases at €0 to €50,000. Reported awards are at the awards register and the full cost picture is at Defamation case cost in Ireland.
Civil legal aid is not available for defamation under s.28(9) of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995. Any solicitor you instruct must give you a written costs notice under s.150 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, and may not charge a percentage of anything recovered.
Where this leaves you
A review that describes your own experience as your own experience is the kind of statement the honest opinion defence was written for. A review that asserts what the business did is only as safe as the evidence behind it, and that evidence is what you should gather now with the kit at the evidence kit. If the letter demands money, the deadline is close, or you are unsure which of your sentences are fact and which are opinion, the form at the solicitor page puts the review and the letter in front of a solicitor who can tell you where you stand and what a reply or an offer of amends would involve.
Frequently asked questions
Can a company sue you for a bad review you wrote?
A company can bring a claim, but since 1 March 2026 a body corporate must show the review caused, or is likely to cause, serious financial loss. A sole trader is an individual and has no such hurdle. Whoever the complainant is, a review that is honest opinion, or substantially true, has a defence under the Defamation Act 2009.
Is a negative review defamation?
A negative review is not defamatory just because it is negative. The question is whether it makes a statement that tends to injure the business's reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society and whether that statement is fact or opinion. An opinion about your own experience is protected by honest opinion; an assertion that the business did something specific has to be proved true.
Should I delete the review when I get a solicitor's letter?
Keep a dated copy first. Many people take a review down, or edit it to remove the factual assertions they cannot prove, while they consider the letter. Taking it down does not end a claim that has already accrued, but what you do after the letter is something the court weighs when it fixes costs.
The platform removed my review. Does that mean I lost?
No. A platform acts on a notice under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act, and it has its own innocent publication defence under s.27 of the 2009 Act, so removal is a commercial decision by the host, not a finding against you. Only a court decides whether a statement was defamatory and whether you had a defence.
What will defending a claim over a review cost me?
Planning assumptions, not a tariff: a solicitor's reply to a letter €300 to €1,000; a contested Circuit Court trial €10,000 to €30,000 a side; hourly rates €250 to €400 (Irish Times, April 2026). Costs follow the event, so a company whose claim fails normally pays your costs. Civil legal aid is not available for defamation on either side.