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That is not it at all. The lawsuit claims (from what I read in the article) that the issue is before turning down an offer to advertise on the site for $300 a
by sjsivak 17y ago
That is not it at all. The lawsuit claims (from what I read in the article) that the issue is before turning down an offer to advertise on the site for $300 a month, the company had a 4.5 star rating. Two days after the refusal, the company claims that six out of seven 5 star reviews were removed (by Yelp).
This is about being forced to pay to keep your good reviews, not about page views. The company is just saying that with a reduced rating they saw less traffic, which is to be expected.
- jrockway 17y agoWhy is Yelp obliged to publish favorable reviews? If a newspaper critic said "I hate this place", that would be fine. But if Yelp does it, it's not fine? Why is that?
- cynicalkane 17y agoIf a newspaper critic wrote reviews in exchange for money, while lying about it, this sounds to me like extortion. It might be fraud, too. IANAL.
- jrockway 17y agoFollowing the legal definition of extortion, I don't see a case. It's unethical, certainly, but the action you take against unethical journalists or their publications is to stop reading them. The legal system does not provide a remedy.
- dschobel 17y agoIf you can convince a jury that you lost business because of someone else's action, then you can get damages. Welcome to civil court.
- sjsivak 17y ago1. I have no idea what obligations Yelp has, legally or otherwise. 2. Legal definition of extortion (IANAL): The use, or the express or implicit threat of the use, of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to person, reputation, or property as a means to obtain property from someone else with his consent. Seems like (to my untrained and uneducated self) that this would be Yelp damaging the Company's reputation because the Company refused to pay Yelp.
- jrockway 17y ago"criminal means" is the key word. Removing comments from a website that you operate is not criminal. I hope.