What to do about a fake or defamatory review in South Africa
By ReputationKiln Editorial · Published
In South Africa, begin with the platform routes, document, flag with evidence, respond calmly, then lean on the law where it is needed. South African law recognises online defamation as the wrongful and intentional publication of a defamatory statement that harms reputation, and businesses can claim for reputational harm. A review crosses into defamation where it is presented as fact, is false, and is intended or reasonably likely to damage your reputation. As everywhere, truthful or honestly-held opinions about a real experience are protected, so you cannot act against a genuine bad review.
The routes, in order
Capture the review with date, address and reviewer profile, and correlate it with your own records to show it is false or that the reviewer was never a customer. Exhaust the platform's own reporting. Then a South African lawyer can send a demand to the reviewer and, where appropriate, a notice to the platform, and bring a defamation claim seeking damages and an order to remove or retract, with the courts able to grant interdicts requiring content to be taken down. Intermediary liability turns on knowledge and control, so a clear court order against the reviewer is usually the cleanest route to removal.
Extortion, and the limit
A threat to flood you with fake reviews unless you pay engages the common-law offence of extortion and the Intimidation Act, so do not pay, document it, and report it. The honest limit is that South Africa has less dedicated fake-review case law than some countries, so the platform routes and the general deceptive-conduct and electronic-communications laws often do more in the moment than a regulator complaint. Read the panic-tax page before paying any firm promising removal.
Sources
- False, misleading or deceptive representations including fabricated testimonials are prohibited, with Tribunal penalties up to 10 percent of turnover or R1 million. — Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. https://www.gov.za/documents/consumer-protection-act · checked 2026-06-04