Yelp Sues Google for Self-Preferencing Customer Reviews

Review website Yelp has sued Google over illegal monopoly in local search. Yelp sued Google for prioritizing its reviews over those of competitors. The latest antitrust lawsuit points to the growing legal challenge that the search giant continues to face weeks after a US Judge ruled that Google is an illegal monopoly.

According to Yahoo Finance, the online review site alleges that Google has an unfair advantage in the local search market and advertising.

Anticompetitive Conduct

Yelp has considered Google’s conduct as anticompetitive for over a decade now. The California-based firm has been striving to compete with Google in local search and advertising by developing detailed reviews of local businesses like beauty parlors and restaurants.

The timing of the Yelp Google antitrust legal suit suggests that more businesses may take action against the search giant in the coming months. Besides businesses, government agencies have stepped up antitrust probes against big tech companies. In June this year, US agencies agreed to commence probes on OpenAI, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

Speaking in an interview, Aaron Schur, Yelp’s General Counsel said that Yelp drew from Google’s antitrust case ruling earlier this month to demonstrate that the tech giant used its monopoly power to dominate other spaces.

“Our case is asserting that Google has abused that illegal monopoly in general search that has already been decided by Judge Mehta, and it’s using that monopoly to self-preference that inferior content in the adjacent market of local search and also the local search advertising market,” Schur said.

Self-Preferencing

Yelp’s lawsuit is about stopping Google from prioritizing its reviews above those of competitors. The lawsuit outlines how Google sought to get users off its search page and onto the web fast. This move led to the creation of thriving ecosystems like Yelp that provided consumers with the information they were seeking.

However, Google decided to enter into this market when it noticed how lucrative it was to help users find which pizza to order or which handyman to hire.

“First and foremost we want Google to end its unlawful self-preferencing- which hurts consumers, hurts competition, and hurts the businesses that pay for local search advertising. That is really what we are focused on in this case,” Schur said.

In a statement released by Google’s spokesperson, the tech giant said it will mount a vigorous defense against Yelp’s allegations that the company considers to lack merit. Google says that Yelp’s claims are not new and that similar allegations had been dismissed by the Federal Trade Commission a few years ago.

A Long Battle

Yelp has been accusing Google of monopolizing the internet search market in the US and the EU for several years now. Specifically, the online review company has been accusing Google of using its dominance to place its reviews higher than those of rivals on search results.

In the wake of the landmark antitrust ruling, the US Department of Justice is considering pursuing a forceful break up of the tech giant. If this happens, this will be the first push to break up a company for illegal monopolization in two decades after efforts to split Microsoft failed. A forceful breakup of the tech giant would be the largest in the US since the 1980’s when AT&T was dismantled.

The DoJ may opt for a less severe option like requiring the tech giant to share data with rivals or eliminating its default status in mobile devices.