Yelp Sues a Law Firm Over Fake Reviews
For quite some time, Yelp has been battling claims of threatening potential clients using negative reviews to convince businesses to buy advertising with them. After trying to defend themselves for quite some time in court and on their blog, another similar accusation of bullying was found. After San Diego lawyer, Julian McMillian sued Yelp and won his claim for Yelp not delivering on the advertisements he had bought from the company; he began to contact other lawyers who had similar situations happen to them. When Yelp found out about what McMillian was doing, they sued alleging McMillian had planted fake reviews on his law firm page.
Yelp differentiates itself by using algorithms to ensure that reviews are trusted and reliable from actual customers and not from family members or friends. Yelp argued in their suit against McMillian that his employees had posted positive reviews about the firm and that some reviews even came directly from his office building. Because the reviews violated the terms of service for Yelp and harmed their reputation, Yelp sought damages from McMillian. Although McMillian contends that Yelp is retaliating, this is not the first time that Yelp has gone after other small businesses for posting false reviews.
There seems to be wrongs on both parties’ sides, but what is more worrying is that the matter of online presence and tracking through technology has really expanded how lawsuits are interpreted. As we have seen with social media, more and more technology can be used against us in ways we may not have even considered.