Yelp Sues Google Over Local Search Dominance via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Yelp has filed an antitrust suit against Google successful national tribunal successful San Francisco.

The suit alleges that Google has illegally leveraged its monopoly successful wide hunt to predominate the section hunt and section hunt advertizing markets, harming contention and user choice.

Key Allegations

Yelp’s complaint accuses Google of engaging successful anticompetitive conduct, including:

• Self-preferencing its ain “inferior” section hunt merchandise implicit competitors
• Driving postulation and gross distant from rivals similar Yelp
• Making it harder for competitors to execute scale
• Increasing costs for rivals
• Limiting user prime to turn its marketplace power

The institution claims Google’s section listings are “on average, shorter, much prone to error, little taxable to prime control, and little apt to beryllium utile to consumers” compared to Yelp and different specialized providers.

The suit seeks injunctive relief, monetary damages, and a declaratory judgement that Google’s behaviour violates antitrust laws.

Background & Context

This ineligible enactment escalates Yelp’s combat against Google’s practices successful section search, which extends over a decade.

It follows a recent ruling by Judge Amit Mehta, which recovered that Google illegally maintained its monopoly successful wide search. Yelp believes the determination provides a instauration for its case.

Key points from Judge Mehta’s ruling include:

• Google was recovered to beryllium a monopolist that abused its ascendant position.
• The company’s paid default agreements with instrumentality makers and browsers foreclosed astir 50% of the hunt marketplace from rivals.
• Google’s behaviour had anticompetitive effects, including reducing incentives for competitors to innovate.

Aaron Schur, Yelp’s General Counsel, says successful a connection provided to Search Engine Journal:

“Judge Amit Mehta’s caller ruling successful the government’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, uncovering Google illegally maintained its monopoly successful wide search, is simply a watershed infinitesimal successful antitrust law, and provides a beardown instauration for Yelp’s lawsuit against Google.”

Potential Remedies

While circumstantial remedies volition beryllium shaped by the find process, Yelp has pointed to the “Focus connected the User” program arsenic 1 imaginable solution.

This connection suggests modifying Google’s hunt algorithm to aboveground the champion contented from crossed the internet, alternatively than favoring Google’s ain properties.

Looking Ahead

This suit represents the latest section successful the statement implicit Google’s hunt marketplace dominance.

Google hasn’t responded to the lawsuit. The institution has antecedently defended its practices arsenic beneficial to users and argued that it faces genuine contention successful section search.

Featured Image: MacroEcon/Shutterstock

SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer astatine Search Engine Journal

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s grade successful communications, ...