Yelp Sued For Offering To Bury Bad Reviews In Exchange For Ads

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A California veterinary center has sued review site Yelp for allegedly promising to bury bad reviews in exchange for purchasing $3,600 worth of advertising on the site.

"Yelp frequently exercises its control over the Yelp.com listing application to modify business listing pages to the advantage of businesses that purchase Yelp advertising subscriptions, and the disadvantage of those that decline," Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital owner Gregory Perrault alleges in a complaint (PDF) filed in federal district court in the central district of California.

Cats and Dogs, based in Long Beach, alleges that Yelp violated California's business code. The company is seeking class-action status.

Perrault says in his complaint that his dispute with Yelp stemmed from two "defamatory" reviews that appeared on the site. The posts allegedly included statements like "Dr. Perrault is the rudest vet I've ever been to" and "my poor dog was terrified of him."

Perrault says in his lawsuit that shortly after these reviews appeared, he began receiving "frequent, high-pressure calls from Yelp advertising employees, who promised to manipulate Cats and Dogs' Yelp.com listing page in exchange for Cats and Dogs purchasing an advertising subscription."

Specifically, he alleges that a Yelp sales representative promised to move the reviews to the bottom of its results, ensure that they did not appear in search engine results, and also allow the hospital to decide which order reviews would appear in on Yelp, in exchange for a one-year $300-a-month ad buy.

The lawsuit was filed one year after the East Bay Express reported in an explosive article that some business owners were alleging that Yelp sales representatives offered to bury bad reviews in exchange for ad purchases. Yelp's CEO disputed the allegations.

Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman says that it's not clear how far the case will get in court. Even if Cats and Dogs can prove that Yelp's sales representatives promised to remove bad reviews in exchange for ad purchases, it's not clear that such tactics violate California's business code, Goldman says.

On the other hand, he adds, judges might be sympathetic to the business owners who are suing. "The allegations are damning," he says. "I could see a court saying, 'Give me a legal theory and I will find a remedy.'"

A Yelp spokesperson denied the allegations and said the company will fight the lawsuit aggressively. "The allegations are demonstrably false, since many businesses that advertise on Yelp have both negative and positive reviews. These businesses realize that both kinds of feedback provide authenticity and value."

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0 comments on "Yelp Sued For Offering To Bury Bad Reviews In Exchange For Ads".

1. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: February 25, 2010 at 9:16 a.m.

   How about if Yelp did this for .... let's say.....duh.....Toyota?Anyone think this would a problem?

2. Gregory Yankelovich from Amplified Analytics Inc
   

   commented on: February 26, 2010 at 5 p.m.

   I think mixing customer reviews and advertising is very poor business model, even though it seem to work for many players. Many people find customer reviews very important to reduce uncertainties of their buying decisions, however consumers do not want to pay for any content they use online. That creates ethical, and potentially legal, conflicts we are witnessing here. We http://amplifiedanalytics.com are in the business of converting raw data (customer reviews) into structured information digestible to an enterprise as a form of VoC (Voice of Customer) or Customer Feedback. The temptation of monetizing the market intelligence we produce by advertising revenue is very strong, but I feel that it would negatively affect the perception of integrity of our content and try to sell access to our database instead.

3. Dave Woodall from fiorano associates
   

   commented on: February 26, 2010 at 6:36 p.m.

   *Yawn*

   Just a digital version of checkbook journalism.

   If Mr. Perrault isn't happy with his Yelp reviews, he could spam it with positive reviews or ask his satisfied customers to post their own positive reviews.

4. Rodilyn Basco from Rodilyn Basco
   

   commented on: March 21, 2010 at 1:35 p.m.

   pmThe thing that people are missing is that businesses all deserve good and bad posts. We are not all perfect. I use bad comments as a way to improve. What yelp does, is WITHOLD good comments, then use them to extort paid advertising from you. They promise to reinstate the good comments if you become an advertiser. When there is a bad comment, it's easy to see if someone is genuinely disappointed with the service, or if they are disgruntled. After hearing both sides of the story (as in my case) They still refused to remove the bad comment. You could google my name and this girl bashed me on every site available. That's going past being unhappy with service. That's trying to ruin my business with lies. Calling me a thief because I cashed a previously stopped pmt check. Did it occur to anyone that she's the thief who tried to get a service from me then not pay? I hope you get a chance to read my blog. I also hope someone comes up with a good idea to figure out how to keep this company from affecting our businesses. It's truly criminal. www.southbaystylist.com/rodshotseat

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