Less than a month after Google lost a major antitrust case against federal regulators, competitor lawsuits are beginning to emerge.
On Wednesday, Yelp filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in San Francisco federal court, accusing the tech giant of illegally abusing its monopoly in the general search market.
Yelp claims Google’s anti-competitive practices harm smaller local search competitors and restrict consumer choice.
Yelp’s General Counsel, Aaron Schur, emphasized that Judge Amit Mehta’s recent ruling in the government’s antitrust case against Google strengthens Yelp’s case.
Schur stated, “For years, Google has leveraged its search monopoly to benefit its bottom line at the expense of consumers, innovation, and fair competition.
Google’s exclusionary and anti-competitive actions have diverted traffic and revenue from competitors, increased costs, and limited consumer options.”
The Department of Justice initially sued Google in 2020, alleging monopolistic practices in digital search that marginalized competitors like DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s Bing.
In early August, the court confirmed that Google monopolizes the general search text advertising market. Mehta cited Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple as contributing to its dominance and ability to inflate ad prices.
Yelp’s lawsuit outlines several alleged anti-competitive practices by Google, including misappropriating Yelp’s content, favoring Google’s local search results, and manipulating algorithms to steer users away from Yelp.
Google, however, dismissed Yelp’s claims as “nothing new” and noted that the FTC has rejected similar accusations, as has the judge in the Justice Department’s case.
Yelp argues that Google has abandoned its mission to provide users with the best information and is pushing its lower-quality local search content instead.
According to Yelp, this shift occurred after the company declined Google’s acquisition offer in 2009, sparking a “years-long mission” by Google to undermine Yelp’s access to consumers.
Less than a month after Google lost a major antitrust case against federal regulators, competitor lawsuits are beginning to emerge.
On Wednesday, Yelp filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in San Francisco federal court, accusing the tech giant of illegally abusing its monopoly in the general search market.
Yelp claims Google’s anti-competitive practices harm smaller local search competitors and restrict consumer choice.
Yelp’s General Counsel, Aaron Schur, emphasized that Judge Amit Mehta’s recent ruling in the government’s antitrust case against Google strengthens Yelp’s case.
Schur stated, “For years, Google has leveraged its search monopoly to benefit its bottom line at the expense of consumers, innovation, and fair competition.
Google’s exclusionary and anti-competitive actions have diverted traffic and revenue from competitors, increased costs, and limited consumer options.”
The Department of Justice initially sued Google in 2020, alleging monopolistic practices in digital search that marginalized competitors like DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s Bing.
In early August, the court confirmed that Google monopolizes the general search text advertising market. Mehta cited Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple as contributing to its dominance and ability to inflate ad prices.
Yelp’s lawsuit outlines several alleged anti-competitive practices by Google, including misappropriating Yelp’s content, favoring Google’s local search results, and manipulating algorithms to steer users away from Yelp.
Google, however, dismissed Yelp’s claims as “nothing new” and noted that the FTC has rejected similar accusations, as has the judge in the Justice Department’s case.
Yelp argues that Google has abandoned its mission to provide users with the best information and is pushing its lower-quality local search content instead.
According to Yelp, this shift occurred after the company declined Google’s acquisition offer in 2009, sparking a “years-long mission” by Google to undermine Yelp’s access to consumers.