Influencer Fined 81,000 Dirhams and Phone Confiscated for Defaming a Famous Restaurant

In a world filled with screens, some believe that posting any digital content is simply an exercise of free expression, while the law has drawn a clear line between constructive criticism aimed at improvement and defamation that undermines a business's reputation and harms its owners.

In this context, the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department published the details of a case as part of its "Stories and Lessons" series, titled "A Fleeting Video... A Costly Bill." The incident began when a social media influencer decided to point her phone camera at a well-known restaurant — not to review the quality of the food or service, but to broadcast offensive remarks impugning the integrity of its owner and his management of the establishment.

Facing this digital assault on his personal standing and his business, the restaurant owner did not stand idle. He immediately approached the competent authorities and filed an official complaint, asserting that the published video went beyond the bounds of legitimate opinion and caused serious moral and material harm to the reputation and standing he had built over years.

Upon being summoned and confronted with the recorded footage, the defendant admitted, in the investigative record and Public Prosecution proceedings, to filming the restaurant and posting the video on her personal account, justifying her act as intended "criticism." However, the investigating authorities found that the language used exceeded the bounds of objective assessment and constituted direct abuse falling under insult and defamation through technical means, as it targeted the individuals and their standing rather than merely evaluating the product or service.

After the case was heard before the competent court, it issued a ruling fining the defendant AED 30,000, ordering the deletion of the offensive clip, and confiscating the phone used in the incident as an instrument of the crime.

The consequences did not stop at the criminal penalty: the court also ordered the defendant to pay AED 51,000 in provisional civil compensation to the aggrieved party, bringing the total cost of that moment of defamation to AED 81,000 — turning fleeting "views" into a pointed legal lesson that abusing others is not material fit for digital publication.