Recent awards of damages by courts for online defamation continue to serve as a warning to reviewers, bloggers, influencers and business competitors that care should be taken to ensure that the content posted online is factually correct and not defamatory. A Gold Coast cosmetic surgeon was recently awarded $420,000 in damages for false reviews made by a business competitor.
Read moreRecent awards of damages by courts for on-line defamation continue to serve as a warning to all using the internet that care must be taken to ensure that there is a factual basis for what is published. In Rush v Nationwide News Pty Limited (No 7) [2019] the Federal Court rejected the Respondent’s justification defence on the basis of lack of credibility of its principal witness and failure to corroborate the principal witness’ evidence, resulting in actor Geoffrey Rush being awarded almost $2.9 million in damages – including $850,000 for non-economic loss including aggravated damages – a damages award which was upheld on appeal by the Full Federal Court.
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