Digital Racketeering? … Lawsuit Accuses Yelp of Extortion
A class-action lawsuit claims online business review repository Yelp charges businesses a kind of protection fee to make bad reviews disappear. Yelp vehemently denies this, although the allegations line up with an earlier report of bad behavior.
A class-action lawsuit claims online business review repository Yelp charges businesses a kind of protection fee to make bad reviews disappear. Yelp vehemently denies this, although the allegations line up with an earlier report of bad behavior.
Without the trust of its users, Yelp is pretty useless. If this is true, it’s despicable. If not, it’s a devastating smear. — PZS
Wait, before you go…TechCrunch via LA Weekly:
Two law firms, Beck & Lee from Miami and The Weston Firm in San Diego, have filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court alleging unfair business practices by local business review and rating website operator Yelp.
The plaintiff in the suit, a veterinary hospital in Long Beach, CA, is said to have requested that Yelp remove a negative review from the website, which was allegedly refused by the San Francisco startup, after which its sales representatives repeatedly contacted the hospital demanding payments of roughly $300 per month in exchange for hiding or deleting the review.
If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.