They might become actionable, John, if they have an impact on a business, for example if people cancel or don’t place orders as a result of completely groundless comments like some made on here, resulting in the company losing business and therefore income.
History has numerous examples of hypothetical discussions affecting a business’s reputation and sales. People need to be very careful what they write and put their name to, especially when it is completely without foundation.
If someone put it about that they wouldn’t place an order with a well known decal company because they just might go bust, even though there were absolutely NO grounds for writing that, you would be pretty annoyed, wouldn’t you? You would say it was unfair, wouldn’t you?
And if as a result of that comment you lost business and therefore income, I wouldn’t blame you for getting your solicitor to drop them a line
By the way, I am a former lecturer in business law so I have plenty of “grip” .