Highly unlikely, as Google would say it was a mistake and point out that they correct details when venues notify them.
On a slight tangent: bear in mind also that Google is not party to whatever agreement there is between venue and customer, which is why it's so foolish that one frequently sees people asking questions on Google Maps as if they are directly communicating with the venue. Eg people ask "Can i get a child's cot in my room" - all it takes is for some joker to say yes, the naive asker to proceed to the venue and then find out that they offer no cots, at which point naive person has no leg to stand on (venue quite rightly says we've no idea what you're talking about).
The articles not strictly right that there's no way for users (ie the public) to contact Google in this regard; Google Maps Local Guides certainly can contact them and anyone can become one of those.
However, putting that aside: Venues/business owners can contact Google and i suspect would get a slightly better response rate (not saying it'll be perfect or even super easy for an owner to get through but they can as there are often links indicating "Are you the owner of this business?")
They could possibly register a trademark, but few restaurants seem to.
I can't imagine this creating much of a barrier - Google would stop if told to by the restaurant but then they might not list the restaurant, and what restaurant would see that as worth it?
Even with a trademark, you can't prevent people from talking about the facts related to it. Despite the crazy reach of IP law, they still can't silence you from uttering "Big Mac(tm) costs 4.99$ here."
