Yelp court ruling: it's not extortion, just hard bargaining ?!?

[Margaret Ornsby]

Posting this here because while it's not specifically Ggl, it's still very much a part of the local ecosystem. Feel free to move to more appropriate spot Linda.

Yelp gets a lot of bad press. Won't comment on whether it's deserved or not...

This recent court ruling will make for interesting conversation, in particular
"The business owners may deem the posting or order of user reviews as a threat of economic harm, but it is not unlawful for Yelp to post and sequence the reviews," Judge Marsha Berzon wrote for the three-judge panel. "As Yelp has the right to charge for legitimate advertising services, the threat of economic harm that Yelp leveraged is, at most, hard bargaining."


Court Rules for Yelp in Suit Over Online Ratings | NewsFactor Network

The comments after the post are the best reading

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Margaret, thats totally local so is a great fit. We talk about Yelp quite a bit too even though G always takes center stage.

Can't wait to read it.

 

[Michael S. Doran]

While it isn't legally extortion, Yelp is still an unethical company in my opinion. Their hard bargaining compromises the integrity of their review system. Just as the BBB is no longer a quality resource, Yelp has rendered their reviews largely obsolete.

I have a client that has about 25 reviews and all but 2 are filtered. The 2 that Yelp shows are the only reviews they have with 1 star. All of the 4 and 5 star reviews are filtered out. So about 90% of their reviews are filtered, as if they might be fake, which is crazy. I can't imagine any company having only 2 of 25 reviews being legit.

Yelp routinely hides over 50% of a company's good reviews and there is no way that is being done in an effort to maintain quality of reviews.

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Why would anyone want to go and review a company on Yelp when most likely their review will never show up?

 

[sequenantial]

Yelp is so unethical in my opinion. The fact that they have a "filter" that can magically change when you advertise is insane. I find it very useful when i'm a customer, but their ethics for business drive me crazy.