A brand new chapter in Google’s antitrust troubles opened yesterday with Yelp submitting a lawsuit alleging that Google’s monopoly in search permits 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 rising 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 complete criticism is right here.
Why we care. Having simply been hit over the pinnacle 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 firms that may present hurt.
We’ll go away 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 certainly slightly 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 towards Google addresses how Google abuses its unlawful monopoly generally 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 generally search to pad its personal backside line on the expense of what’s greatest for shoppers, innovation, and truthful competitors. By willfully partaking in exclusionary, anticompetitive conduct, Google has pushed site 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.
Decide Amit Mehta’s current ruling within the authorities’s antitrust case towards Google, discovering Google illegally maintained its monopoly generally search, is a watershed second in antitrust regulation, and supplies a powerful basis for Yelp’s case towards 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 basic counsel
