Yelp hit Google with an antitrust lawsuit that accuses the search giant of exploiting an illegal monopoly to promote its own reviews at the expense of rivals — just weeks after a federal judge ruled that the big tech company was a “monopolist.”
The lawsuit alleges that Google relies on its dominant control in general search to “divert traffic away from those rivals and toward Google’s inferior local search product,” according to the complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Yelp, a longtime Google rival that aggregates customer reviews for restaurants, dentists and countless other businesses, claims the tactics are “part of a deliberate conspiracy to self-favor its own products in all aspects of search.” .
“Google’s scheme prevents businesses from reaching customers without paying Google and deprives competitors of traffic and revenue that would allow them to achieve scale and constitute a competitive restraint on Google’s conduct,” Yelp’s lawsuit said.
The lawsuit adds another legal headache for Google, which could be overturned after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled earlier this month that it violated antitrust law by making billions of dollars in payments to ensure its search engine was activated as default on most smartphones.
Google said it will appeal the decision.
Elsewhere, a separate DOJ antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s alleged monopoly over digital advertising begins on September 9. Federal lawyers are seeking an aggressive divestment of Google’s ad tech business as part of the case.
A Google spokesperson said Yelp’s claims in the lawsuit are not “new.”
“Similar claims were made years ago by the FTC, and more recently by the judge in the DOJ case,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “On other aspects of the decision referred to by Yelp, we are appealing. Google will defend itself vigorously against Yelp’s baseless claims.”
The lawsuit also accuses Google of “destroying” Yelp’s customer reviews to populate its local search results without giving proper credit or compensation.
In addition, Yelp claims that Google’s local search results are error-ridden and of lower quality than its own.
“Google took Yelp’s data, used it for its own competitive property to drive users away from Yelp, and profited,” the lawsuit states.
Yelp said it is seeking a finding of monetary damages against Google, as well as an injunction blocking the company from future misconduct.
“Google should not be both the monopoly provider of general search results and the self-preferred curator of its own local search content,” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said in a blog post.
“This is equivalent to being a judge and a competitor in the same Olympic competition.
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