to pursue any criminal or legal action for, only to have those reviews either taken down or declined for posting by Tripadvisor. Offers by Meriton of inducements to guests in exchange for reviews In October 2015, an ex-hotel manager at Meriton said guests were offered inducements to change ratings they left on the site. In 2018, Meriton was fined AU$3 million by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission for misleading consumers. Malicious reviews In March 2015, Dietmar Doering, a German hotelier based in Sri Lanka accused Tripadvisor of hosting malicious reviews of his resort The Cosy Beach in Marawila. He claimed he was compelled to take legal action for the estimated damages of US$500,000. In 2012, an action was brought in a Sheriff Court in Scotland, by Richard Gollin, the owner of a guesthouse in the Outer Hebrides who claimed damages for malicious statements. Tripadvisor first asserted that the Scottish courts lacked jurisdiction since it is based in the United States. However, it later conceded that it could be sued in the UK's jurisdictions. The court ruled that Tripadvisor's terms of use constituted a contract, which was actionable/enforceable by the business being reviewed. The case was found to involve issues relating to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act of 1977, and these issues were referred to a higher court in Stornoway. The plaintiff eventually dropped the case because he could not afford to pursue it. Fake reviews due to political affiliations of establishment In 2019, a guesthouse being used as the headquarters for Reform UK was "trolled" by hundreds of users leaving one-star reviews on Tripadvisor. The guesthouse in Norfolk was owned by the husband of Catherine Blaiklock, the leader of the political party. Fine for Improper commercial practices In December 2014, the Italian Antitrust Authority fined Tripadvisor €500,000 for improper commercial practices on the Tripadvisor website. The Italian Authority said Tripadvisor and its Italian arm should stop publishing misleading information about the sources of the reviews. In June 2015, a fake restaurant created by a newspaper rose to the top of the site's rankings in Italy. In August 2013, Kenneth Seaton lost a $10 million lawsuit against the company in which he claimed that the ranking for his Grand Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, as "America's dirtiest hotel" was based on unsubstantiated rumors. Breaches of advertising standards In September 2011, after receiving a complaint