Yelp, one of Google’s most vocal rivals, has officially filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant, shortly after a federal judge declared Google an illegal monopolist. In its lawsuit, Yelp accuses Google of monopolizing local search services by prioritizing its own inferior verticals over those of competitors, a move Yelp claims has stifled competition and lowered the quality of local search results. Yelp argues that Google’s practice of directing users from its general search engine to its own local search services constitutes illegal tying of separate products, effectively preventing competitors from gaining scale.
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Yelp is seeking a court order to halt Google’s alleged anticompetitive behaviour and is also demanding damages. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California, the same jurisdiction where a jury recently found Google guilty of maintaining an illegal monopoly through its app store in a case against Epic Games. Yelp has requested a jury trial for its case as well.
The company was motivated to file its lawsuit following the Department of Justice’s recent success in its antitrust case against Google, which focused on the company’s exclusionary practices in the distribution of search services. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman noted that the DOJ’s victory marked a significant shift in the antitrust landscape. He explained that he had previously hesitated to file a suit due to the resources it would require and because he believed it was the government’s responsibility to enforce antitrust laws.
However, it’s worth noting that U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who ruled in favor of the government in the DOJ case, had earlier dismissed claims by state attorneys general that Google unfairly designed its search result pages to disadvantage specialized search engines like Yelp and TripAdvisor.
In response to Yelp’s lawsuit, Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels dismissed the claims as unoriginal, pointing out that similar accusations were previously rejected by the Federal Trade Commission and by Judge Mehta in the DOJ case. Google plans to appeal those aspects of the decision that Yelp references and intends to “vigorously defend” against Yelp’s lawsuit.
Yelp contends that Google’s behaviour ultimately harms consumers by preventing other vertical search services from reaching users, thus reducing the incentive for Google to invest in quality content. Yelp also argues that advertisers are adversely affected, as Google’s dominance in local search allows it to charge higher fees with little competition. According to Yelp, this has enabled Google to increase its search advertising revenue by over 20% annually for much of the past decade, while simultaneously expanding its market share.
Yelp has a long history of challenging Google’s business practices, having testified before the Senate in 2020 about its antitrust concerns, filed a complaint with the European Union over Google’s alleged self-preferencing, and supported various government efforts to hold Google accountable.
