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When Mutton Gets Dressed as Lamb
As recent reports have indicated, there is a growing trend with restaurateurs and hoteliers to re-work, cut and paraphrase reviews in order to dress up a negative critique. However, while it is by no means a new trick to sample key words and clauses of a gloomy write-up to make an establishment appear more attractive, it is about to become increasingly difficult to justify. Should the likes of Gillian Glover or AA Gill dish out a generous helping of vitriol on your veggies, don't be tempted to use selective quotes to your favour. Indeed, doing so could even land you in the dock Richard Findlay outlines the new Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, and has a word of caution for anyone with a penchant for poetic licence…
When the Directive becomes law next year, it will no longer be acceptable to cherry-pick superlatives from the latest newspaper commentary on your newly opened eaterie.
This fresh legislation will be served in April 2008, and will impose a general duty on all businesses not to trade unfairly with consumers. Proprietors of hotels, bars and restaurants will be obliged not to mislead punters through acts or omissions, such as the deliberate misquotation of reviews.
A great deal of this new legislation overlaps with existing bread-and-butter rules, like the Trade Descriptions Act, for example. However, the new rules seek to plug the gaps, and ensure harmony on this subject throughout the whole of the EU, and everyone will be bound by the same regulations.
The new laws will also repeal rafts of current legislation, and will modernise and simplify the existing framework. When implemented, it will target practices that are unfair but not currently unlawful, and it will have the power to impose civil or criminal penalties as appropriate.
Along with personal recommendations and preceding reputation, a favourable few words can catch our eye when selecting a restaurant in which to dine, and the forthcoming legislation will recognise and harness the power of the quote.
Many of us have seen such snippets as 'charming service' or 'astonishing flavours' when, in fact, the full spiel may have read 'this kind of charming service one might expect of a prison refectory' and 'the sort of astonishing flavours that would be too rich even for the constitution of a starving Labrador'.
However, not every selective quote will fall foul of the law. To successfully prosecute an unscrupulous restaurateur, hotelier or publican, it will have to be shown that his or her use of misleading quotes was unfair.
To qualify, two criteria will have to be satisfied:
Firstly, the prosecution will have to demonstrate that the act of using a misleading quote fell short of the standard of care which restaurateurs, hoteliers, publicans and their kin might reasonably be expected to exercise towards patrons 'commensurate with honest market practice and the general principles of good faith'.
Secondly, proof would have to be led that the unscrupulous individual materially distorted the behaviour of a patron - in other words they influenced the patron to visit an establishment and pay for a meal or similar that he/she would not have done had they not read the selectively quoted review.
Unless both criteria are satisfied, there can be no prosecution.
So remember – avoid singing the praises of your blueberry pancakes if they are actually rather crêpe. In the end, if you play with your food you might just have to eat your words.
This article has been edited from its original version. For the complete feature and to view pictures, please see Catering in Scotland magazine July/August 2007.
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