Yelp has officially filed a lawsuit towards Google for allegedly utilizing its monopolistic powers to present Google an unfair benefit in native search and native search advertisements. “For years, Google has leveraged its monopoly usually search to pad its personal backside line on the expense of what’s finest for customers, innovation, and truthful competitors,” Yelp’s Common Counsel, Aaron Schur stated.
Aaron Shur informed us:
Yelp’s antitrust lawsuit towards Google addresses how Google abuses its unlawful monopoly usually search to interact in anticompetitive conduct, together with self-preferencing its personal inferior native product, to dominate the native search and native search promoting markets. For years, Google has leveraged its monopoly usually search to pad its personal backside line on the expense of what’s finest for customers, innovation, and truthful competitors. By willfully partaking in exclusionary, anticompetitive conduct, Google has pushed visitors and income away from opponents, made it tougher for them to scale, and elevated their prices, whereas degrading client selection, to develop its personal market energy.
Decide Amit Mehta’s current ruling within the authorities’s antitrust case towards Google, discovering Google illegally maintained its monopoly usually search, is a watershed second in antitrust legislation, and offers a powerful basis for Yelp’s case towards Google. Along with injunctive reduction, Yelp seeks a treatment that ensures Google can not self-preference in native search. The harms brought on by Google’s self-preferencing are usually not distinctive to Yelp, and we stay up for telling our story in courtroom.
You possibly can learn the complete doc, a 66 page PDF, to undergo the detailed lawsuit.
Jeremy Stoppelman, the founding father of Yelp, wrote, “Our case is about Google, the most important info gatekeeper in existence, placing its heavy thumb on the dimensions to stifle competitors and maintain customers inside its personal walled backyard. Abandoning its acknowledged mission to ship the perfect info to customers, Google has illegally abused its monopoly usually search to dominate the native search and native search promoting markets—partaking in anticompetitive conduct that has degraded the standard of search outcomes and demoted rivals to develop its market energy.”
As a reminder, in December 2009, Yelp entered unsuccessful negotiations to be acquired by Google. Google provided about $500 million, however the deal fell via after Yahoo provided $1 billion. Then each presents had been later deserted following a disagreement between Yelp’s administration and board of administrators in regards to the presents. Yelp and Google don’t get along, they have not actually since this failed acquisition.
As an FYI, in 2013, we lined that Yelp dominated the Google results identical to we did with Reddit in 2024 and Wikipedia before it.
The NY Occasions has good coverage of this lawsuit.
Listed below are some takes on X:
It is principally an try and free journey on Decide Mehta’s discovering that Google has market energy in “normal search”
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Bolt on a “search neutrality” / anti-preferencing argument (which Mehta rejected)
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Demand for a jury trial (ala Epic v. Google)https://t.co/gNos7tkV18— Adam Kovacevich (@adamkovac) August 28, 2024
Wow. Criticism comes out and says “Yelp is very depending on Google for visitors” and “Google’s self-preferencing harms Yelp.”
That is Yelp’s drawback – the legislation would not defend it from competitors from Google. pic.twitter.com/LVrJnSlWUz
— Adam Kovacevich (@adamkovac) August 28, 2024
Good for Yelp. It is exhausting to think about a extra applicable & morally righteous plaintiff in head-to-head litigation towards Google. @JeremyS has been a tip of the spear within the antimonopoly motion. Godspeed. 🫡https://t.co/cMJr8MbKPE
— Luther Lowe (@lutherlowe) August 28, 2024
Yelp’s CEO:
Yelp is searching for a treatment that addresses Google’s anticompetitive misconduct, and protects client selection. Be taught extra: https://t.co/CaIt9FLU1x
— Jeremy Stoppelman (@jeremys) August 28, 2024
I ought to add, that after I posted about this on X, the response was not in favor of Yelp from search entrepreneurs and SEOs. Click on via to that X publish to see the responses.
Yelp even made this microsite for this lawsuit.
Discussion board dialogue at X.
