Following the ruling of monopolizing the search market, Google is now facing anti-monopoly accusations from Yelp
The American merchant review website Yelp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, accusing it of abusing its dominant market position, controlling the local search and related advertising markets, and suppressing competition. Yelp claims that Google diverts traffic from competitors through its monopolistic search engine, while preventing businesses from reaching customers without payment. A Google spokesperson stated that they will strongly refute these accusations and mentioned that such lawsuits are not uncommon
According to the financial news app Zhitong Finance, the US merchant review website Yelp (YELP.US) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google (GOOGL.US), accusing it of abusing its dominant position to control the local search and related advertising markets, thereby stifling competition.
The company claims that Google uses its monopoly position in general search to divert traffic from local search competitors and its own search engine.
Yelp stated: "Google's plan prevents businesses from reaching customers without paying Google, and prevents competitors from gaining traffic and revenue, which could have allowed them to scale and constrain Google's behavior."
"Google's self-preference and gatekeeper behavior have caused traffic stagnation or decline for Yelp and other local search competitors, even though objectively (the latter) provide better services, as confirmed by Google's own quality metrics," Yelp said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit points out that after a judge ruled that Google maintained its search monopoly through exclusive distribution agreements, the US government achieved a landmark antitrust victory against Google.
Yelp's legal challenge indicates that more companies may consider suing Google for alleged antitrust behavior. Yelp mentioned other professional platforms in the search ecosystem, such as Expedia (EXPE.US), Glassdoor, and Zillow (Z.US).
A Google spokesperson responded: "Yelp's allegations are not new. Similar allegations were dismissed by judges in cases brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a few years ago and more recently by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). We will appeal other aspects of the judgment mentioned by Yelp. Google will vigorously defend against Yelp's baseless allegations."