Yelp files antitrust suit against Google over monopolistic local search practices
This lawsuit has been over 15 years coming.
JoriPress
- Yelp has filed a federal suit against Google, citing monopolistic practices in local search.
- The review site would like to see Google forced to prioritize the best results for users, even if those don’t come from Google itself.
- Yelp hopes that its efforts will see the court level the playing field for companies competing with Google.
Sometimes you have to wonder if Google’s legal department has an erasable sign up on the wall: It has been [_] days since the last antitrust suit against Google. We’d also wonder if that number ever gets to triple digits, as it feels like the company can’t go more than a couple months without being hit with the latest allegations of unfair business practices. Now the most recent action to be taken against the search heavyweight is just the latest development in a saga dating back over 15 years, as Yelp accuses Google of monopolistic behavior.
Yelp and Google used to be partners, with the latter licensing the former’s reviews. After that arrangement ended, you might remember that Google even tried to acquire Yelp. But that deal never came to pass, and not long after, the relationship really started to sour, with Yelp accusing Google of scraping its content without permission. This was still ten years ago, and Google Search has evolved a lot in the time since, with both a whole lot greater emphasis on local content, and giving users the results they’re looking for right on Google itself — and far less clicking through to sites like Yelp.
