“Google is a monopoly.” Those were the words U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote earlier this month in a landmark ruling against the search giant in an antitrust case brought to court by the U.S. Department of Justice. .
While the case against Google involves its $20 billion deal with Apple to maintain its default dominance of Google searches on iPhones, the Justice Department lawsuit appears to have just opened the floodgates.
On Wednesday, local business review platform Yelp File an antitrust lawsuit Litigation against Google over its dominance of local search and local search advertising.
Yelp challenges Google for local search dominance
Yelp’s lawsuit against Google is all about the search giant prioritizing its own local search products.
Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a public post about the lawsuit: “Our case is about Google, the largest information gatekeeper in existence, vigorously suppressing competition and confining consumers to its own walled garden. “Google illegally abused its monopoly in general search to dominate the local search and local search advertising markets, and its anticompetitive conduct reduced the quality of its search results and disparaged competitors in order to enhance its market power. “
Enter any local business, whether it’s a nearby restaurant or plumbing services, and Google local search results are inevitable. Google reviews and star ratings left through Google Maps, as well as contact information, business hours, etc. are all easily available on the Google search results page. On the web, this information is usually placed in the sidebar and does not unduly distract from Google’s competitors on the search page. However, when performing a local search on a mobile device, Google’s local search information is often the first and only thing you see on the page until you scroll down.
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“When consumers conduct Google searches with local intent, Google manipulates its results to promote its own local search products over competitors, regardless of the relatively inferior quality of its own products, thereby insulating itself from their use. The impact of qualitative ranking systems on search.
Yelp’s CEO said Google’s anti-competitive behavior affected the company so much that Yelp noticed that an increase in Google searches for a term often resulted in zero additional clicks on the recommended links on the page. The reason, according to Yelp, is that Google’s local search product only provides all the information on the search page, giving users no reason to click through to competitors.
In publicly explaining its lawsuit against Google, Yelp cited numerous cases against Google over the years and fines the company has received for anticompetitive behavior. It also includes important statements from Google executives over the years, such as a quote from Marissa Mayer, Google’s former vice president of search product, who claimed that Google would put its products first in Google search results. , because it “seems fair.” Mayer’s statement also acknowledged that search results will only be ranked based on the popularity of links to Google’s own products at the top of the page.
Yelp is a regular at Google, and he apparently saw an opportunity after Judge Mehta’s recent ruling. Aaron Schur, Yelp’s general counsel, said this himself in a statement provided to Mashable.
“Judge Amit Mehta’s recent ruling in the government’s antitrust case against Google, which found that Google unlawfully maintained its monopoly in general search, is a watershed moment for antitrust law and sets the stage for Yelp’s case against Google provides solid ground “In addition to injunctive relief, Yelp seeks a remedy to ensure that Google can no longer self-prefer in local searches. “
“The harm caused by Google’s self-preference is not unique to Yelp, and we look forward to telling our story in court,” he continued.
Mashable has reached out to Google for comment and will update if we hear back.
