Review platform Yelp sued Google: accused of monopoly in search market and manipulation of results; Google said – the allegation is not new

Online review platform Yelp has filed a lawsuit against Google. Yelp has alleged that Google wants to eliminate its competitors from the advertising market and create its own monopoly. Yelp CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman said in a blog post that Google has abused its monopoly to dominate the local search and local search advertising market. Yelp has filed the lawsuit at a time when a US federal judge recently said that Google has illegally maintained a monopoly in the general search market for the past one year. Google describes its content as better
Yelp said that when a user searches for content on Google, Google manipulates its results to show its local search offer as better than its competitors. He said that even if its own content is of comparatively poor quality, it promotes it more. It also gives exemption to its own content in the quality ranking system. Yelp said- Google has to be stopped from doing anti-competitive work
Stoppelman said, ‘With this action, we want to protect competition and consumer choice as well as compensate for the damages and stop Google from doing anti-competitive work, so that innovation can grow.’ Google said- Yelp’s claims are not new
On Yelp’s allegations, a Google spokesperson said, ‘Yelp’s claims are not new. Similar claims were rejected by the judge in the FTC case years ago and recently in the DOJ case. We are appealing other aspects of the decision that Yelp has cited. Google will defend itself with full force against Yelp’s baseless claims.’ This year, Alphabet’s stock gave a return of 17.87%
Amid the fall in the global stock market, Google’s parent company Alphabet’s stock closed at $164.50 with a fall of 1.13% on the previous day. Its stock has fallen 2.79% in the last 5 days and 3.87% in one month. At the same time, Alphabet’s stock has given a positive return of 19.70% in 6 months and 24.82% in one year. This year, i.e. from January 1 till now, Google’s stock has risen 17.87%. US judge also accepted Google’s monopoly Earlier this month, US judge Amit Mehta said that Google acted illegally to maintain monopoly in online search. For this, Google spent billions of dollars, took advantage of its dominance to crush competition and suppress innovation. This decision has come after litigation that lasted for almost a year in a case. After reviewing the evidence and witnesses given by Google, Microsoft and Apple officials, Judge Amit Mehta gave a 277-page decision on Monday (August 5). Google’s global affairs chairman Kent Walker said that the company would appeal against this decision. Google’s dominance is proof of its monopoly
The decision found that Google’s dominance in the search market is proof of its monopoly. Google has an 89.2% share in normal search services, which is 94.9% on mobile. Judge Mehta’s decision highlighted the billions of dollars spent by Google every year to make its search engine the default on new mobile phones and electronic gadgets. US Attorney General Merrick Garland has described this decision as a historic victory for the American people. According to media reports, the next phase now may involve lengthy legal proceedings and appeals, which could potentially extend till 2026. Read full news…