Yelp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that Google has leveraged its control over online searching to dominate local queries and prioritize its own reviews, marking the culmination of years of animosity between the two companies. In response, Yelp Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman stated that Google abuses its monopoly power, preventing users from visiting rival sites and siphoning traffic and advertising revenue from vertical search services like Yelp. This US lawsuit follows a recent Department of Justice case that ruled Google as a monopolist in search, without imposing sanctions. It is expected that Yelp’s case will be the first of many similar lawsuits brought by Google’s competitors. Additionally, Yelp has also expressed concerns about Google’s practices overseas, particularly in Europe where efforts to loosen the company’s stranglehold over search results have been met with criticism from Yelp for potentially making users less likely to leave the Google ecosystem. Google has not yet responded to requests for comment.
