Designer Plants owners David Eden and Georgina Oxley sued Melbourne Movers and Google for defamation

A husband and wife engage in an expensive court battle to restore the reputation of their factory business after they are bombarded with more than 100 negative reviews following their feud with a removalist company.

David Eden and Georgina Oxley sought the services of Melbourne Movers in September 2018 to transport stock for their small business Designer Plants, which sells decorative artificial greenery for businesses and homes.

They were given a fixed price, but the move, which involved transporting the contents of their warehouse, was not completed after debate over the cost of the work.

Since the altercation, the couple – who are also councilors in the City of Kingston in Melbourne – have claimed in court documents that they have stolen more than 100 false negative reviews from Google over several years.

Since 2018, the couple have spent more than $100,000 in legal fees as they brought search giant Google and the owner of a removal company to court for defamation.

‘We feel very stressed and tired of the whole saga. It’s very stressful,” Oxley told Daily Mail Australia.

‘[But] we want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

‘We are only the newest [alleged] victims – but the problem is a national crisis.’

David Eden and Georgina Oxley (pictured) are suing Google and transfer company Melbourne Movers for defamation

The couple went to Victorian Civil and Administrative Courts in the months following their moving dispute to try and replace their lost funds, where they won an order for the movers to pay them $3327.50.

They were paid a few thousand a year later, but now the couple claims they ran out of more than $1 million because they sued Google and those suspected of being behind the review for damages, including lost sales.

Court documents allege the first false review on the Designer Plants business page was posted in May 2019, with the couple’s claim statement saying the reviewer’s name was the same as the staff member at Melbourne Movers.

‘Very poor quality product. Please save your money in another shop,” the review read.

Eden and Oxley sought the company’s services in September 2018 to move stock for their small business, Designer Plants

The move (not pictured) was discontinued due to arguments over fees, even though the pair paid over $3000 on fixed quotes (stock image write-off)

The employee also posted a five-star review on Google’s Melbourne Movers business page that same day, according to a statement by Mr Eden and Ms Oxley.

In court documents, the couple said their business page had been flooded with bad reviews, which often featured the same repeated typos, such as misspelling dodgy as ‘dogie’ or ‘doggy’.

Among the accusations were claims that the couple were defrauding people, selling poor quality products, having rude staff, and not offering refunds.

Mr Eden and Ms Oxley are seeking an intervention order against the removal in July 2020 through the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to prevent them from posting more reviews.

According to civil court documents, they were given the order.

However, a day later, the couple claimed in their court documents that they were hit with another 32 damaging reviews in 24 hours, despite a court order.

Google was granted a subpoena issued in an attempt to identify reviewers, but the pair said the tech giant refused to comply and only removed some posts.

The couple claims that they have been bombarded with over 100 fake reviews (two in photos) over the past three years

Bad reviews have similar writing styles, claim pairs, and repeated typos

The couple are now suing Google and the owners of the removal companies, Udari Achichi and Rangika Abeyweera, in Victorian District Court for defamation, court documents show.

Google is being pursued for damages for publishing five reviews, while Achichi and Abeyweera are also accused of perjury for posting allegedly fake reviews.

Court documents show Victoria Police made an unsuccessful request to Google for information to reveal the poster, with the search engine claiming it could not accommodate the request because it had limited data on reviewers.

The company also claims that it was ‘not under duress’ to produce the documents listed in the subpoena.

Achichi and Abeyweera have denied telling the couple they would ‘regret going through it’, posting a review after an intervention order was given, or that they or their partner were involved in the first false review, according to defense documents.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Melbourne Movers and Google for comment.

The case will be presented before the court itself in January 2023.

The couple started a petition calling on the Federal Government to launch a Royal Commission into cyber bullying, online abuse, and the behavior of big tech companies.

The couple said they had spent more than $100,000 so far in legal fees as they brought Google and owner Melbourne Movers to court.

Last year, Scott Morrison’s government unsuccessfully tried to introduce new ‘anti-trolling’ laws that would unmask anonymous social media users.

However, the controversial law – which would have required social media platforms to submit names and contact details that defamed others online – sparked fears that it could exacerbate intimidation and not make it to parliament.

Critics argue the bill is too focused on changing defamation laws, and could backfire by making it harder for victims to delete defamatory comments if the page owner is not held accountable.

Historically, social media companies were able to evade responsibility for what was posted on their sites by claiming that they were the platform and not the publisher.

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