Business reviews site Yelp amounts to an “extortion scheme,” according to a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles court by two law firms and a Long Beach, Calif. veterinary hospital that claims it was “victimized” by Yelp sales representatives asking for payment in exchange for the removal of negative reviews.
“The plaintiff…asked that Yelp remove a false and defamatory review from the Web site,” a release from the law firms alleges. “In response, as set forth in the lawsuit, Yelp refused to take down the review. Instead, the company’s sales representatives repeatedly contacted the hospital and demanded a roughly $300 per-month payment in exchange for hiding or removing the negative review.” That payment is “in the guise of ‘advertising contracts,'” the release explained.
Sounds like extortion to me.
This is part of living in any civilized society. Bad things happen to you if you don’t pay those with the power.
I have just requested that my Yelp account be closed, let’s see how long it takes for them to respond.
Too bad, I really like Yelp. I thought this review of the San Quentin State Prison was rather helpful.
“Not all big bad & scary like the movies make it, but cold,damp and miserable with really shitty food. AVOID AT ALL COST!”
http://www.yelp.com/biz/san-quentin-state-prison-san-quentin#hrid:nOMCssKV2zD3SI5aX0Sdig
Wow, that is extotion and a break of faith with the users.
Businesses hate it when the sheep get organized. It makes it so much harder to shear them.
The removal of negative reviews has completely destroyed any credibility Yelp ever had with me. My wife had a problem with a local SF legend and composed a negative but not profane or slanderous review and within a week it had been removed no notice nothing it was as it had never existed.
I HATE YELP! always have…always will.. Most people in this world are retarded and have no taste…particularly the ones that have the time to write their thoughts on yelp.
The term “racketeering” might be appropriate.
Why sue the company rather than the author of the posting? Oh yeah, the author probably doesn’t have a lot of money.
Most of the time, if you don’t suck, people won’t write bad reviews.
I am not sure how I feel about Yelp being able to remove negative reviews in the first place. On one hand, the whole site’s credibility comes into question when they do this, on the other it’s the internet. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that there are idiots who would enjoy posting obviously false and mean hearted reviews.
wow for get that oen guys was doing this. whats worst is that it’s possible to call them up and have someone remove a bad review. If that’s the case then no one can trust the reviews then
#11
Don’t trust the reviews on Yelp. Have you seen/read reviews there?