A man has taken to social media to ask whether it was right for a restaurant to file a lawsuit against him for leaving a bad review on Facebook.
Although the post has since been deleted, it sparked a debate among netizens over what constitutes as legit complaints and defamation.
M’sian man writes bad review over alleged poor service
According to the Sin Chew Daily, the OP said the restaurant had two different menu sets, which were priced at RM30 and RM50 respectively.
At the time, one of his friends, who was a vegetarian, wanted to opt for the RM30 set but was told by the staff that “all customers at the same table must choose the same set.” In the end, they had no choice but to go with the RM50 set.
Not long after, two more friends joined the group but had to sit at another table due to seating limitations.
When they ordered the RM30 set, the staff insisted that they order the RM50 set based on the reasoning that they were from the same group of friends and might share the same ingredients.
Dissatisfied with the restaurant’s rules, the OP protested and called it “an insult to one’s dignity”. However, the owner and staff refused to budge and remarked, “If we give in every time a customer makes a fuss, we will be out of business soon.”
As such, this caused the OP to vent his frustration on Facebook by writing a bad review of the restaurant.
Sued RM300,000 for defamation
To his shock, the OP was later learned that the restaurant had filed a lawsuit against him for defamation and demanded RM300,000 in compensation.
Sharing his predicament in the Facebook group 法律与你同行 Law & Justice, he said he was merely complaining about the poor service and never imagined he would be sued for it.
He also added that he would have to spend at least RM30,000 to fight the lawsuit and felt that it was unfair for him to spend so much money when he was the “victim” in the entire situation.
Was OP in the right or wrong?
In the comment section, there were a handful of netizens who supported the restaurant in filing the lawsuit, arguing that the OP deserved what was coming to him.
‘Not only did OP reveal the restaurant’s name, he even took photos of its signage and spread it all over social media with the intention of backing them to a corner. He deserved the A4 paper (lawyer letter).’
Another said the OP could have saved himself all the trouble by choosing not to patronise the restaurant again instead of blasting it online.
On the other hand, some felt the lawsuit was too harsh a response, with one saying he felt the OP was just recounting the entire situation and wondered whether this could be counted as defamation.
What’s your take on this? Share with us in the comments!
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