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# French Food Blogger Fined $3,400 for Bad Review
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/french-food-blogger-fined-3400-for-bad-review/
- Published: 2014-07-17T00:13:10.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:33:10.000Z
- Description: A French court has ordered a blogger to pay €2,500 (~$3,380) for writing a negative review of a restaurant, Eater reported.
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: In Brief, France, Lawsuits, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![Screenshot of cached version of Caroline Doudet's negative review of Il Giardino (via web.archive.org)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/07/ilgiardino.jpg)

Screenshot of cached version of Caroline Doudet’s negative review of Il Giardino (via web.archive.org)

A French court has ordered a blogger to pay €2,500 (\~$3,380) for writing a negative review of a restaurant, [Eater](http://eater.com/archives/2014/07/15/food-blogger-fined-3400-dollars-for-negative-review-interview.php?ref=hyperallergic.com) reported. Il Giardino, an Italian restaurant located in Cap-Ferret, France, sued blogger [Caroline Doudet](http://leschroniquesculturelles.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) after she visited the establishment last summer and posted a scathing review of the place (which she’s since deleted but has been [cached](http://web.archive.org/web/20131204090140/http://leschroniquesculturelles.com/2013/08/24/lendroit-a-eviter-au-cap-ferret-il-giardino/)): the headline read, “L’endroit à éviter au Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino,” which translates to, “The Place to Avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino.”

Doudet went on to discuss not only the food but also the service, calling the boss “a diva.” This likely gave the restaurant grounds — or at least *chutzpah* — for its suit, as France has notably strict [libel laws](http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/08/france-faces-restrictions-on-free-expression/?ref=hyperallergic.com). The restaurant’s legal team claimed the article was “[more of an insult](http://eater.com/archives/2014/07/11/food-blogger-fined-3400-for-writing-negative-restaurant-review.php?ref=hyperallergic.com)” than a critical review and said its high appearance in Google search results was causing them to lose customers.

Lest you think these kinds of lawsuit are limited to France: [they’re](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/us/01slapp.html?pagewanted=all&ref=hyperallergic.com) [not](http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/07/yelp-reviewers-beware-you-can-get-sued/?ref=hyperallergic.com). The 21st century may have wrought the [death of the critic](http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-death-of-the-critic-9780826492791/?ref=hyperallergic.com), but it has also birthed defamation lawsuits like never before.