A Phuket court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by a well-known cake shop against a customer who gave it a 1 star review, ending a case that turned a simple complaint about taste and price into a 5 million baht legal battle.
Lawyer Arm Suwannaraksa, who represented the customer, announced the win on his Facebook page yesterday, July 23. He posted a photo with his client alongside the caption “the consumer wins.”
The dispute began in 2025. The customer visited the shop, left a 1 star review and commented that the cake was not tasty and cost too much. The review sparked online drama at the time.
Rather than respond to the feedback or explain its side, the shop sued. It demanded 5 million baht in damages from the customer.
The gamble backfired. The court dismissed the case and ordered the roughly 100,000 baht in court fees paid by the shop forfeited. The business has since closed down.
A warning to business owners
Arm said the case should serve as a lesson for entrepreneurs across Thailand.
“Suing consumers should never be the first option. It should be the last,” he wrote. Honest criticism from customers deserves a fair hearing, he argued. Businesses should use it to improve or respond with reasons, not with court papers.
“As a lawyer, if I were advising a business owner, I would always say that good communication and proper problem-solving usually deliver better results than taking the matter to court.”
His client is not finished either. The customer thanked the court for weighing the facts and evidence fairly, then signalled plans to pursue their own legal rights “to the fullest,” suggesting a countersuit could follow.
The customer could not resist a final jab. “As for the millions they demanded in damages, in the end they didn’t get a single baht,” they wrote, before cheekily plugging Phuket’s low season hotel deals and thanking the case for a scenic “workation.”
The shop confirmed the outcome in its own brief post, stating only that the court of first instance had dismissed its defamation case.
Bad reviews keep landing Thai businesses in court
The case fits a familiar pattern. Thailand’s defamation laws carry both civil and criminal penalties, and businesses have repeatedly used them against unhappy customers. A Koh Chang resort famously had an American guest arrested over negative online reviews in 2020, drawing international headlines.
Legal experts call these cases SLAPP suits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. The goal is rarely to win. It’s to drain critics of time and money until they stay quiet. The Thaiger has examined how SLAPP lawsuits work in Thailand and why the law makes them so easy to file. Even politicians face nine-figure defamation claims for public criticism.
This time, the court sided with the customer. The review stays up. The shop is gone.
For the latest updates from the island, follow The Thaiger’s Phuket news.
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