The renowned business directory and review service, Yelp, has initiated legal proceedings against Google — a behemoth in the search engine market — alleging the latter of indulging in unfair trade practices that thwart competition in local search services. Yelp holds a history of competition against Google and has now decided on a legal recourse, reinforcing its long-standing rivalry with the technology giant.
Coming on the heels of a federal judge’s decision declaring Google’s violation of antitrust laws and the existence of an unlawful monopoly, the timing of Yelp’s lawsuit is significant. This legal challenge, launched in the Northern District of California, assigns blame to Google for creating and sustaining its monopoly in local search services by favoring its own less superior vertical over its competitors’.
In Yelp’s viewpoint, Google’s preference to point users toward its own local search vertical from its universal search engine results page represents an illegal tie-up of different products, thereby preventing competitors from achieving substantial growth. Yelp seeks to restrain Google from its presumed anti-competition behaviour with this lawsuit and asks for compensation for the alleged damages.
A prominent element of the lawsuit is Yelp’s demand for a jury trial. This case will be processed in the same court where Google was previously found to hold an illegal monopoly in a separate case involving its app store and Epic Games — another tech industry player.
Adding weight to Yelp’s decision to legally address Google’s alleged anticompetitive behaviour is the Department of Justice’s recent triumph in its antitrust case. The court focused its attention on Google’s exclusionary practices regarding the distribution of search services.
US District Court Judge Amit Mehta sided with the government in their fight against Google. However, it’s worth highlighting that the judge had earlier minimized the range of the lawsuit by rejecting certain allegations from a collection of state attorneys general. These accusations claimed that Google had manipulated its search result pages to suppress visibility for specialized search engines such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.
The response from Google to this lawsuit came from Peter Schottenfels, its spokesperson. ‘Yelp’s claims are not striking any new ground. Similar charges were dismissed years back by the FTC, and recently also by the judge in the DOJ’s litigation. In regard to Yelp’s reference to some other components of the decision, Google plans to file an appeal. Yelp’s groundless allegations will be strongly counterattacked,’ he commented.
Positioning consumers as the real victims of Google’s purported anti-competitive activities, Yelp forwards that by limiting users within the Google domain, other vertical search services are denied the opportunity to reach clients, amass scale and create useful content.
In a piece on his blog, Yelp’s CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman, stated, ‘Google’s alleged anti-competitive practices have downgraded the competitive landscape, leading to its disinterest in quality content enhancement. This further tempts it to display less relevant but monetizable results.’
The legal complaint goes on to assert that advertisers suffer detriments due to suppression of competition in local search, as more local advertisers are forced to seek Google’s services. Stoppelman remarked that, ‘Google’s search advertising revenue has witnessed an uphill growth of 20% or more annually for most part of the recent decade, while managing to grow its market share.’
Yelp has been consistently loud about its antitrust concerns with Google. The company has earlier testified about its objections before the Senate, registered complaints with the European Union about Google’s alleged self-referencing, and backed government bodies in proceeding with charges against the search giant.
This intricate legal dispute between Yelp and Google is not without precedent, but comes amidst a changing landscape in discussions and rulings on digital monopolies and anti-competitive business practices. It marks an important chapter in Yelp’s ongoing challenge against Google’s dominance in the local search market.
Only time will unfold whether Yelp’s move to drag Google into court will herald greater transparency and competitiveness in the local search services arena or if it would merely add to the growing list of antitrust suits faced by this Silicon Valley giant. As more companies grapple with surviving in the shadow of a digital monopoly, this court case could have ripple effects within the industry and indeed, globally.