Is it illegal to leave a three-star Google restaurant review in Germany? No, that's not true: It is legal to leave a three-star review, but German law supports the restaurant's commercial reputation. If a business challenges reviews as defamatory Google will remove them, with provisions for the reviewer to appeal. Where reviews are removed, Google displays a non-exact count -- shown as a range -- of defamation removals for that business.
The claim was made in a post published on X by @jmkettle on May 5, 2026 (archived here). The post was captioned:
Giving a restaurant a three star review is illegal in Germany.
This is the screenshot included with the post:
(Image source: post by @jmkettle on X.com.)
The text of the screenshot reads:
Hello,
Your review isn't posted.
What happened
We received a complaint that your review is defamatory under German law. Your review is removed for now, because German courts have set a low threshold for businesses to challenge reviews as defamatory.
Affected URL(s):
James Kettle
It was fine
Essen: 3
Service: 3
Ambiente: 4
The conclusion stated in the caption, that a three-star review is illegal in Germany, is not true. Google has a page explaining their user-generated content policy regarding defamation removal notices in Germany (archived here). One paragraph explains how German law has set a low threshold for a business to challenge poor reviews:
Defamation under German Law
Besides protecting the reputation of individuals, German law protects a company's commercial reputation by allowing the company to demand the removal of false factual statements or factually unjustified expressions of opinion that could harm its business standing ('defamation'). German courts have set a low threshold for businesses to challenge reviews as defamatory. Besides proving that a review actually contains a defamatory statement, businesses can also claim that a reviewer was not a customer (for example, they have no record of a transaction). Unless there is evidence to the contrary, courts generally order platforms to remove such reviews.
Another page of Google's policy explains how a reviewer can appeal a decision to remove their review in Germany (archived here). This page includes a list of suggestions for how someone appealing a defamation removal can demonstrate, both through description and documentation, that they were really a customer and their experience was as described. Google writes:
The majority of defamation removal requests we get cite this "not-a-customer" argument. If you receive a notification that your review was removed for defamation, it is important to understand this does not necessarily mean the business has proven your content is fake or defamatory. Rather, it is likely that the business claimed you were not a customer, and we need additional evidence confirming your genuine experience with them.
