sheila

Well, I'm a Scots lawyer not an English one- and yes the laws are different. But certainly a pursuer (plaintiff) here has the right to select from three jurisdictions assuming always that they are different. One is the place of domicile of the pursuer; one is the place of domicile of the defender and the third is the place the alleged delict took place. There is a complicated private international law system as to which is chosen if there is a dispute.

So someone defamed in England by something published in England can CERTAINLY sue the publisher in England and obtain a judgement. Whether or not they can enforce it is another matter, but there are systems set up to achieve that too.

I might add that whilst being in good faith does not reduce culpability, it might well reduce the sum awarded. There are many, some famous, cases where the plaintiff has been awarded a farthing- and had to pay their own legal costs.

ribeirasacra

Someone above talks about Expedia. That, along with booking dot com is owned by the same company as TA.
I am not a lawyer so I cannot give my 10 cents worth of legal advice here.

k9korps

sheila: >>So someone defamed in England by something published in England can CERTAINLY sue the publisher in England and obtain a judgement. Whether or not they can enforce it is another matter, but there are systems set up to achieve that too.<<

I fear we're going in circles. There's little argument about whether someone CAN sue. To paraphrase, you can sue a ham sandwich if you can pay the legal bills. The question is "What's the point?" if you can't enforce the judgment? Your statement casts doubt on the enforcement part of the issue, which was already in doubt.

And let's clarify something about the term "publish." Under UK law, does an anonymous post on a website constitute "publishing"? Because if it does, then there's a whole different set of libel laws, depending on whether you "publish" a newspaper, a book, a one-page pamphlet, and so on. All have different libel standards.

So I'll tell you what I think: The whole thing's a publicity stunt that, legally speaking, will go nowhere, other than TA making some minimal concessions.

PatrickLondon

>>Perhaps TripAdvisor are unaware of the process known as "extraordinary rendition"<<

This extraordinary rendition should help them laugh it off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTzblLMcneE

sheila

Oh, absolutely, publishing something on a web site is publishing for defamation purposes. It's one of the reasons web sites are moderated.

They only reason i didn't post about enforcing judgement is it's not my field; but I'll go and research it for you

sheila

Tracked it down. If a foreign judgement is final, holder of it applies to a state court in the US. They mostly "rely on the local version of the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act, 13 U.L.A. 149 (1986)."

Trip advisor is domiciled in Massachusetts.

bluzmama

I've never really liked TA's site and rarely use it. When I rented an apartment in London I looked at reviews from Expedia, Orbitz and Londontown.com before making my selection. Since what might bother someone else may not bother me, I think it is important to do research. I think that's why I love researching at the Fodors forum. You get a number of points of view from people who love to travel. I found my apartment in Paris based of a Fodors recommendation.

I would think that if the B & B that didn't like the review was able to respond, I don't see that they were terribly hurt. Not everyone looks to TA to find accomodations.