Yelp Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google... "Like Serving as Both Referee and Player in the Olympics"

Online review site Yelp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. This lawsuit was confirmed amid discussions of a possible breakup of the company led by the U.S. Department of Justice following a court ruling earlier this month recognizing Google as a 'monopoly.' It is expected that related companies will follow Yelp in filing lawsuits.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder and CEO of Yelp, announced on the 28th (local time) through a post on the company's blog that Yelp had filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The 66-page complaint released that day alleges that Google abused its dominant position in the search sector to monopolize the local search service and local search advertising markets, causing harm to consumers, market competition, and advertisers. The claim states that this constitutes a violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, enacted in 1890.

Yelp criticized, "Google is abusing its monopoly power in general search to trap users within the Google ecosystem and prevent them from moving to competing sites." It also noted that competition authorities in the U.S., Europe, and other countries agree that Google has engaged in illegal conduct as a monopoly, and requested the court to order Google to cease anti-competitive behavior and pay damages.

CEO Stoppelman stated, "Google should not be both the exclusive provider of search and a curator that favors its own local content," adding, "This is like being a referee in the Olympic Games while also being a competitor."

He also mentioned past instances where Google was criticized during investigations for scraping reviews from local search services like Yelp and presenting them as its own content, and that Google does not apply a fair competition algorithm because it cannot compete on quality in local search. Furthermore, he emphasized, "We believe this lawsuit will be an important first step toward effective competition among local search providers and a fair competitive environment that offers consumers the best search experience."

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

This lawsuit is particularly notable as it was filed shortly after the Washington D.C. federal court ruled earlier this month that Google is a monopoly, siding with the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice is reportedly even considering the possibility of breaking up the losing Google. The New York Times (NYT) reported, "Yelp's lawsuit leans on that ruling," and "provides a legal basis for other companies claiming coercion by Google." Aaron Shure, Yelp's legal counsel, also predicted that this lawsuit "will not be the last" of its kind.

Yelp, which has previously criticized Google in public forums such as Senate hearings, is known to have deeply considered this lawsuit beforehand. Legal battles against giant companies like Google inevitably require substantial resources. Last year, Yelp's revenue was $1.34 billion, which is incomparable to Google's parent company Alphabet's $307 billion. CEO Stoppelman emphasized the significance of the lawsuit to the NYT, calling it a "major turning point" and stating, "Now is the time to have a conversation and correct past wrongs."

On the other hand, Google dismissed Yelp's claims. Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said in a statement, "Yelp's claims are not new. Similar claims were dismissed years ago by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)," and added, "We will vigorously defend against Yelp's baseless allegations."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.