Yelp sues Google, alleging unlawful dominance of native search

A brand new chapter in Google’s antitrust troubles opened yesterday with Yelp submitting a lawsuit alleging that Google’s monopoly in search has allowed it to illegally dominate the native search and native search promoting markets.

Yelp will argue that Google harms customers by selling its personal inferior native search product over different native search suppliers, stifling competitors and growing prices for its rivals. Yelp is claiming damages in an quantity to be calculated, the damages to be treble beneath the 1914 Clayton Act.

The total criticism is right here.

Why we care. Having simply been hit over the top with a serious loss within the DoJ’s antitrust case alleging an unlawful monopoly in search and textual content promoting, it appears Google might now be the goal of additional claims from particular person companies that may present hurt.

We’ll depart it to the attorneys to adjudicate whether or not the DoJ’s success will put wind within the sails of claims like Yelp’s. However Google would absolutely moderately be doing issues aside from defend itself in courtroom.

Dig deeper: Why Google misplaced: The DoJ’s case in 11 slides

“Wilful anticompetitive conduct.” Yelp issued the next assertion:

“Yelp’s antitrust lawsuit in opposition to Google addresses how Google abuses its unlawful monopoly generally search to interact in anticompetitive conduct, together with self-preferencing its personal inferior native product, to dominate the native search and native search promoting markets. For years, Google has leveraged its monopoly generally search to pad its personal backside line on the expense of what’s finest for customers, innovation, and honest competitors. By willfully partaking in exclusionary, anticompetitive conduct, Google has pushed visitors and income away from rivals, made it more durable for them to scale, and elevated their prices, whereas degrading client selection, to develop its personal market energy.

Decide Amit Mehta’s latest ruling within the authorities’s antitrust case in opposition to Google, discovering Google illegally maintained its monopoly generally search, is a watershed second in antitrust regulation, and gives a powerful basis for Yelp’s case in opposition to Google. Along with injunctive aid, Yelp seeks a treatment that ensures Google can not self-preference in native search. The harms brought on by Google’s self-preferencing should not distinctive to Yelp, and we sit up for telling our story in courtroom.”Aaron Schur, Yelp normal counsel