Google has recently been continuously facing monopoly lawsuits: Most recently, the popular local review platform Yelp has filed a new lawsuit against Google. In the lawsuit submitted to the federal court, it is alleged that Google manipulates local search results to prioritize its own services, thereby eliminating its competitors.
New lawsuit on monopoly issues for Google
Yelp claims that when users search for a local business, Google uses its monopoly power to try and keep them within its own ecosystem, preventing them from going to other platforms like Yelp.
Yelp describes this as an unfair attempt by Google to establish dominance in the local search market. The company alleges in its lawsuit that Google does not only view them as a threat but also considers other specialized search platforms like Expedia, Glassdoor, and Zillow as competitors.
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Yelp also states that Google has failed to provide adequate local search services and has therefore resorted to unfair competition. According to Yelp, the quality of reviews on Google is poor, leading users to prefer alternative platforms.
A recent report published in the past months indicates that 32% of reviews on Google lack any text, which has led to the prominence of alternative platforms like Yelp.
In this lawsuit, Yelp is seeking monetary damages and is calling for Google to officially halt its anti-competitive practices. The outcome of this case has already become a topic of interest. It remains to be seen whether the tech giant can emerge unscathed from this lawsuit.
