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Yelp is no stranger to the court system as it’s been sued countless times by small business owners who believe that Yelp takes advantage of said owners by forcing them to sign up as an advertiser to keep their good reviews, however in a twist on the typical lawsuits that Yelp faces, it appears that Yelp is the claimant this time.
ABC News reported that Yelp is suing McMillan Law Group in San Diego for allegedly having its employees pose as clients of the law firm and post 5 star reviews on its site.
“McMillan Law Group employees pretend to be clients and review their own employer on Yelp,” claims the suit, which then gives four specific examples of the fraud that they are claiming McMillan Law Group has committed, show that some of the positive reviews are connected to those of employees at the firm.
Additionally, Yelp is alleging that the law firm is part of a circle of firms that have been trading 5 star reviews for each other, despite never having hired each other. Yelp is suing for supposed “breach of contract, intentional interference with contract, unfair competition, and false advertising.” It is asking for more than $25,000.
Owner Julian McMillan is denying the claims levied againist him and his law firm by Yelp. If you check the ABC News article, you’ll see that McMillan believes that the lawsuit has “no merit” and is only being brought up against him in retaliation to the lawsuit he had filed against Yelp previously.
McMillan had previously sued Yelp and brought them to small claims court due to Yelp’s advertising policy. According to the McMillan Law Group website, the judge “likened them to the Mafia extorting protection money from small businesses.” While the firm won its suit againist Yelp, due to Yelp’s terms of service (TOS), the suit was forced into arbitration.
In regard to the alleged fake reviews, McMillan denies that he had anything to do with the comments as well as with telling his employees to post them.
Related articles
- Yelp Sues Business For Faking Its Own Reviews (smallbiztrends.com)
- Yelp Sues Law Firm Over Allegedly Bogus Reviews (consumerist.com)
- Yelp’s Newest Weapon Against Fake Reviews: Lawsuits (businessweek.com)
- Yelp sues small San Diego law firm over alleged fake reviews (arstechnica.com)