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 shoppers 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 below the 1914 Clayton Act.
The total grievance 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 go away it to the legal professionals to adjudicate whether or not the DoJ’s success will put wind within the sails of claims like Yelp’s. However Google would absolutely quite 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 normally search to have interaction 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 normally search to pad its personal backside line on the expense of what’s finest for shoppers, innovation, and truthful competitors. By willfully partaking in exclusionary, anticompetitive conduct, Google has pushed visitors and income away from opponents, made it tougher for them to scale, and elevated their prices, whereas degrading shopper alternative, to develop its personal market energy.
Choose Amit Mehta’s current ruling within the authorities’s antitrust case in opposition to Google, discovering Google illegally maintained its monopoly normally search, is a watershed second in antitrust legislation, and offers 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 usually are not distinctive to Yelp, and we sit up for telling our story in courtroom.”Aaron Schur, Yelp common counsel
