Yelp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. as CNN reportsThe move ends years of animosity between Yelp and the two companies claims Google has tightened its grip on online search to favor local queries and prioritize its reviews.
“Google is abusing its monopoly power in general search to keep users in the Google-owned ecosystem and prevent them from going to competing sites,” said Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder and CEO of Yelp. blog post announces the suit. “This anti-competitive behavior drains traffic and ad revenue from vertical search services like Yelp, which objectively provide higher-quality local business content for consumers.”
The U.S. lawsuit may carry additional weight after a Justice Department lawsuit involving a judge He considered Google a monopolist on search. The August ruling did not impose any sanctions on Google, but Yelp’s case is likely to be the first of many brought by the tech company’s rivals.
While this lawsuit is centered in the United States, Yelp is also vocal about Google’s practices abroad. European Digital Markets Act was designed to ease some of the company’s pressure on search results, with rules to prevent massive tech companies from favoring their services. But Yelp argued Google’s attempt at DMA compatibility actually makes users less likely to leave the Google ecosystem.
We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update with their response.
