Housewife from S'pore to pay company S$25,000 for 'disparaging' remarks about their bean sprouts

A housewife in Singapore, Sofia Wu, has been ordered to pay S$25,000 in damages for defaming D'Season, a company that sells produce from Taiwan.

In her post, Wu wrote that it was shocking that someone would dare sell such "ugly vegetables".

Wu, originally from Taiwan, expressed her disbelief that the vegetables were from Taiwan.

“Those who already paid are really unlucky. What organic vegetables from Taiwan? This is basically poisonous vegetables”

She also attached photos of kale and bean sprouts in the post.

At the time of her post, she had 410 Facebook Friends who could view the post. The post garnered 43 reactions.

She also posted comments on her Facebook post in reply to others.

A letter of demand was sent by the company on Apr. 1, 2022. Wu said she deleted her post on Apr. 5, 2022, but did not provide any apology.

D'Season sought general damages of "at least $35,000" which represents an uplift to repair the "allegedly substantial damage" caused to their reputation.

In closing submissions, they sought "at least S$110,000" for the period of Q2 2022 and Q3 2022. They also sought "special damages payable for a longer period of time".

D'Season claimed Wu had defamed it by saying it had sold poisonous vegetables and that its vegetables were not organic, as chemicals had been added to it.

Wu relied on the defence of fair comment, saying she was merely commenting as a consumer or potential consumer.

She also denied that the claimant suffered any loss as alleged.

The judge found Wu's post defamatory and ordered Wu to pay S$15,000 in general damages and S$10,000 in special damages.

Image from court documents and Canva