Yelp’s Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google: Everything You Need To Know

This Wednesday, just three weeks after being charged with illegal monopolization of search, Google has been officially sued by Yelp.

Yelp, the online platform to review and discover local businesses, has claimed that Google dominates local search results and advertising unfairly. In a recent blog post, they alleged that “Google has so effectively self-preferenced its offerings that an increasing volume of searches result in zero clicks, meaning users never leave Google’s search results page.”

The case of the DoJ vs Google has certainly emboldened legal action that may not have felt achievable previously. Aaron Schur, General Counsel at Yelp, explained that the DoJ’s lawsuit “provides a strong foundation for Yelp’s case against Google.”

Yelp’s key arguments that its outlined so far:

• Google uses its monopoly over search to promote its own local search offerings in favor of results from other vertical search services, like Yelp.
• Rather than fairly competing on quality, Google’s “wilful anticompetitive conduct” has not allowed competition the chance to thrive.
• Google’s local search results are, “on average, shorter, more prone to error, less subject to quality control, and less likely to be useful to consumers” than sites like Yelp.
• Google has taken “traffic and revenue away from competitors, made it harder for them to scale, and increased their costs.”
• Consumer choice has been unfairly limited.

Yelp is also requesting injunctive relief, monetary damages, and “a remedy that ensures Google can no longer self-preference in local search.”

Aaron Schur states:

“Yelp’s antitrust lawsuit against Google addresses how Google abuses its illegal monopoly in general search to engage in anticompetitive conduct, including self-preferencing its own inferior local product, to dominate the local search and local search advertising markets. For years, Google has leveraged its monopoly in general search to pad its own bottom line at the expense of what’s best for consumers, innovation, and fair competition.”

What’s Next?

A Google spokesperson has responded to the legal action, saying that “Google will vigorously defend against Yelp’s meritless claims.”

This recent development makes us question whether more search services will feel emboldened to take action against Google in the near future. Yelp also seems to suggest the same, arguing that “the harms caused by Google’s self-preferencing are not unique to Yelp, and we look forward to telling our story in court.”

We will keep you updated on any developments in this case.