If you haven’t yet heard the news, popular review website, Yelp, has recently been hit with a class action lawsuit. Two law firms, in San Diego and Miami, respectively, have filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court. They claim that Yelp is running an “extortion scheme”. The plaintiff claims that she complained to Yelp about a negative review, and was later contacted by a sales representative demanding payments of roughly $300 per month in exchange for hiding or deleting the review.
Does this sound familiar? Well, if a similar situation has happened to you then you’re not alone. This isn’t the first time Yelp has been accused of such shady business practices. I have spoken to several business owners who have been propositioned by Yelp for their monthly advertising for roughly $300 a month. Upon declining the advertising offer these business owners mysteriously saw their “good” reviews disappear and their “not so good” reviews remain.
Yelp has vehemently denied all accusations. In fact, on their official blog they spell out various myths about Yelp to dispel any notion that there is extortion, or unethical business practices, going on. Now Yelp will have to defend itself in court, rather than their blog.
The fact is, Yelp has no clear cut policy on removing reviews. Many people see reviews disappear occasionally. Often times it is because the review is inappropriate, but Yelp claims that they can remove a review if the person who made the post is not “an active Yelp user”. The problem is that Yelp will not disclose the formula for “an active Yelp user”. They claim it is proprietary and confidential. This formula remains a mysterious algorithm.
At the very least Yelp is losing the trust of many of those who relied on them for reviews, especially small business owners. Given that Yelp devalues new or first-time reviewers, they are likely losing trust among these users as well. At most, Yelp is guilty of running an “extortion scheme”. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the case, but we’ve seen this happen before among other large internet juggernauts…they need to be kept in check!
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About The Author: Tom Sullivan is the senior account executive at Turbo Social Media. He has managed accounts for a wide variety of businesses, from small “Mom and Pop” businesses to multi-million dollar corporations. His success in business stems from his entrepreneurial drive and his desire to do “whatever it takes” for his clients to be successful.
Tom received his BA in Business Management Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is a former collegiate rugby player and he enjoys playing softball, golfing, camping, and snowboarding in his spare time. 
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