Yelp sues Google. Consumers review both platforms offering zero stars
Yelp filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in federal court, and consumers are reacting
⚖️ Yelp filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in federal court
🗺️ It alleges Google illegally monopolizes local search & search ads
🧑⚖️ Earlier this month, the DOJ ruled Google an illegal monopoly
💬 Internet commenters want to give both companies zero stars
Remember when we reported the news that Google was ruled an illegal monopoly by the Department of Justice earlier this month? Well, the Yelp reviews are in, and it looks like Google is in for another round of abusing its dominance in search.
Today’s antitrust lawsuit, filed by Yelp in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that Google is illegally abusing its dominance in local search and local search ads. This is Yelp’s bread and butter alongside restaurant reservations. But, according to Yelp, users are kept from leaving Google, giving Google an unfair advantage:
“Consumers lose by getting stuck in Google’s walled garden of inferior quality, with multiple studies showing that people consistently prefer search results that incorporate third-party content.”
Yelp alleges that Google has less incentive to make its content better and can simply monetize results regardless of quality by keeping users trapped among its services. It has the cash to make that happen, too. Google paid Apple $20 billion to remain the default search option in Safari.
Users leave bad reviews for Yelp and Google
Immediately, when Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman posted about the antitrust lawsuit, the reaction from the internet was priceless, highlighting this portion of the complaint:
“Google knows that it won’t win on the merits of quality in local search, and its past and current behavior confirms this. In 2009, Google began scraping reviews from Yelp and other local search services, and misrepresented that content as its own — only stopping after a 2011 FTC investigation condemned this conduct.”
There aren’t many kind words for Yelp’s product and own behavior toward local businesses, though. Here’s a small selection of replies that appeared under Stoppelman’s post on X.
We’ll have an update on Yelp’s lawsuit, especially when Google responds, just like a restaurant manager does on Yelp reviews.
Our Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review is in. At least Google fairly dominates the smartphone camera market in 2024 (so far), where there’s incoming competition now that the iPhone 16 Pro release date is in less than two weeks.