Yelp, an online review platform, has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of engaging in ‘anti-competitive’ behavior that has negatively impacted Yelp’s business.
In a blog post, Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman claimed that Google has unlawfully exploited its search engine monopoly to control the local search and local search advertising markets.
“With our action, we aim to safeguard competition, protect consumer choice, recover damages, and prevent Google from engaging in anticompetitive practices so that innovation may flourish,” Stoppelman said.
Yelp has also alleged that Google’s “self-preferencing” exempts itself from the quality ranking system that applies to other websites.
“When competitors can’t achieve scale due to Google’s self-preferencing, it harms advertisers too. Google’s conduct suppresses competition in the local search advertising market, ensuring that more local advertisers turn to Google,” they wrote. “As a result, Google can extract higher fees from advertisers with little consequence, according to studies. Notably, Google has increased its year-over-year search advertising revenue by 20% or more each year for the better part of the last decade, while still being able to increase its market share.”
Google Responds: ‘Nothing New’
In a statement given to The Verge, a Google spokesperson said, “Yelp’s claims are not new. Similar claims were thrown out years ago by the FTC and recently by the judge in the DOJ’s case. On the other aspects of the decision to which Yelp refers, we are appealing. Google will vigorously defend against Yelp’s meritless claims.”
Reportedly, Yelp has a long history of raising antitrust concerns against Google. In 2020, a top executive testified about these issues before the Senate, with Yelp filing a complaint with the European Union against Google’s supposed self-preferencing. The company has additionally supported several government agencies in their efforts to pursue charges against Google.
This time, Yelp’s lawsuit follows a US federal judge’s finding that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in the general search market for years.
