Google Inc GOOGL 1.98% GOOG 1.83% has been under fire recently from regulators in Europe concerning allegations of antitrust violations concerning the promotion of its own services ahead of competitors’ services in search results. However, the latest attack on Google has come via a tweet from Yelp Inc YELP 2.17% spokesman Vince Sollitto, who is accusing Google of making “absurdly inaccurate” claims about Yelp’s reliance on Google’s search services.
The Claim
The European Union is threatening to take Google to court over claims that “Google gives systematic favorable treatment” to Google Shopping at the expense of competitors’ shopping services.
Yelp’s issue with Google started when Google General Counsel Kent Walker sent a memo to employees (later paraphrased on Google’s corporate blog) that stated that more than 40 percent of visitors to Yelp come directly via Yelp’s mobile app.
The point of Google’s statistic on the source of Yelp’s traffic was to highlight the fact that Yelp, which is among the companies that complained about Google’s actions to European regulators, is not reliant on Google search for its business.
“Mobile changes everything,” Walker wrote in his defense of Google’s practices.
Yelp Fires Back
Sollitto took to Twitter shortly after Walker’s memo became public, and he had this to say:
According to Sollitto, Google was not accurately citing the statistic about Yelp’s users. Sollitto explained that Yelp once claimed that 40 percent of searches done on Yelp properties are performed on the company’s mobile app, but that this statistic has nothing to do with the source of Yelp’s traffic.
What’s Next?
Sollitto admitted that the majority of Yelp’s traffic comes from Google, but didn’t give a specific percentage.
If Google doesn’t agree to a settlement with the European Union, regulators have the authority to impose a fine on Google of up to $6 billion, and it will be up to the courts to decide whether Google’s actions have justified the fine.
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