Google v. everybody else
Will Google’s recent setbacks be Yelp’s good fortune?
Last week, Yelp sued Google, claiming the search giant limits consumer choice and prioritizes its own local search products. This makes it increasingly hard for companies like Yelp to compete.
“Our case is about Google, the largest information gatekeeper in existence, putting its heavy thumb on the scale to stifle competition and keep consumers within its own walled garden,” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a company blog post.
It’s hard not to read straight through these words to Stoppelman’s glee. (Even harder to look past this image of Stoppelman smiling into the middle distance that just ran in the New York Times.)
In a statement, Google said that Yelp’s claims weren’t true and that the company would vigorously defend itself. Similar claims were thrown out by the Federal Trade Commission over a decade ago, a Google rep told the Times. (That was probably about the time Stoppelman testified in front of the United States Senate in 2011, addressing Google’s alleged anti-competitive practices. It’s been a long road.)
Meanwhile, Yelp’s top lawyer, Aaron Schur, told the Times that the points in Yelp’s argument are likely applicable to other companies, and other companies would likely bring similar cases against Google.
It’s hard to overstate the shockwaves a U.S. federal court set off when a judge ruled that Google, a giant among tech giants, was, in fact, an illegal monopoly.
Legal experts spoke in superlatives, calling it “the legal case of the century,” and “a historic win for the American people.” And in my lane, Yelp’s Stoppelman called the ruling “a huge watershed moment for antitrust.”
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“It’s great that we've reached this moment,” he added, which in hindsight was a very clear hint that Yelp’s new lawsuit was on the way. “I do think it is going to breathe a lot of oxygen into the search space. It's going to create opportunities for startups. It's going to create opportunities for innovation for smaller companies like Yelp and others.”
In an act of supremely good timing, the FTC in late August finalized new rules around fake reviews on the internet. The agency started exploring review rulemaking in 2022; now that it’s final, offenders can be fined nearly $52,000 per violation, though it’s unclear how the rule will be enforced.
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In a statement at the time, Yelp’s Schur asserted the company’s position in the review business.
“While Yelp’s policies have long prohibited practices outlined in the FTC’s final rule, we believe the enforcement of this new rule will improve the review landscape for consumers and help level the playing field for businesses,” he said.
Yelp, it seems, is seizing this opportunity.
