In this case he called them a scam solicitor but never explained why, which he did in trial "I paid upfront for a legal assessment of my case. But what I got was just the information I sent them, reworded and sent back to me."
From the sounds of it, if he mentioned that in the review he would be in the clear.
Not the brightest bulb this guy.
That said, I hope that "scam" is common enough vernacular that any actual defence would have managed to convince them that it's a customer airing a grievance and not actually accusing them of a crime.
I think the key point, and one in your favor, is the judges comments. Why would he even elaborate on the reason for his ruling if it’s a default judgment?
I did notice "invite an unlimited number of customers to write verified reviews" though. https://uk.business.trustpilot.com/plans
Much like amazon reviews they absolutely cannot be trusted to be a representation of the truth
This is a suitable problem to be solved by decentralised system.
That would also be open to abuse. It's difficult to stop dishonest PR firms (or anyone else) from flooding positive or negative comments.
Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this?
If you are happy to pay for this, then there are a variety of options with a sliding cost/usefulness/accuracy scale.
If you are looking for reliable, accurate, balanced reviews conducted by anonymous ethical independent agents, and you don’t think consumers of that information should pay for it, then I believe the answer is there is no perfect solution that satisfies all those constraints simultaneously.
Depressingly is also means the most shady companies that will abuse systems like this, will also seem to have a sparkling reputation - actually harming customers if they rely on these sites.
That said, while I dislike Trustpilot, and while I think this case likely has merit, it sets some dangerous precedents with regards to the ability to complain in a public forum.
The bit about lack of engagement with a complaints process is one that worries me, many companies have terrible complaints processes that are designed to respond only to particular types of complaint acceptable to them (often ones they can claim are an issue with other companies), and they become a black hole if your complaint doesn't fit the right format. Trustpilot's lack of structure here is an advantage and a way to hold businesses to some account.