Google has a number of ongoing antitrust lawsuits at the moment, and Yelp’s is one of them. Yelp has just seen a breakthrough in the case, too, as Judge van Keulen just ruled that all claims in Yelp’s amended complaint can move forward.
Yelp has just won a key ruling in its antitrust case vs Google
A federal judge in California said that Yelp can proceed in trying to prove that Google uses its monopoly power to get ahead. Yelp is trying to prove that Google’s own local search product is getting prioritized.
The judge previously dismissed the so-called tying claim previously, but Yelp changed things around in an amended complaint, and the judge changed its mind. U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen denied Google’s motion to dismiss this claim.
How did Yelp do this? Well, the company made an argument that the current design of Google’s search engine results page causes a high percentage of so-called zero-click searches. Users basically just look at the local search results Google highlights without clicking on anything or scrolling down to other search results.
Judge van Keulen accepted Yelp’s argument
“There is nothing inherently incognizable about a tying theory wherein the tied product (here, alleged to be Google’s local search results) is delivered automatically upon use of the tying product (here, alleged to be Google’s general search),” said Judge van Keulen.
She also added the following: “Putting the pieces together, the court finds that Yelp’s refined theory that users are served local search results directly in Google’s OneBox and not only when they click on, e.g., Google Maps links, is cognizable.”
Yelp’s General Counsel, Aaron Schur, said the following: “This latest ruling from Judge van Keulen is a positive step towards holding Google accountable for its illegal exclusionary conduct in the local search and local search ad markets. We look forward to continuing to present our case and detailing how Google’s illegal monopoly harms consumers and innovation.”
It remains to be seen what will happen next in the Google vs Yelp battle, but this is a breakthrough for Yelp, that’s for sure.
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