Yelp Sued Over Client Reviews
Being on the bleeding edge of a cultural trend isn’t usually the most stress-free place to be. Witness Yelp, the leading site for online reviews of restaurants, bars and other small businesses, which has found itself on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit over user reviews.
Once largely limited to products, reputational ecosystems are now developing around other businesses, services and (as is the case with Avvo) professionals. Think of it as the aggregation and dissemination of what people once merely told one another; the move of “word-of-mouth” into the online world. This adjustment is difficult for some, as online comments will be felt more viscerally by a small business than by a global consumer products manufacturer.
Smart business owners, however, know how to move past this disappointment and effectively deal with, learn from and even capitalize on negative user reviews:
As we’ve pointed out before, the most effective ways to respond to negative online comments are obtaining more positive reviews, posting a professional response, or simply ignoring them. Filing a lawsuit is very rarely the right response, if for no other reason than the Streisand Effect. And filing a lawsuit against the internet service that hosts the reviews? An even uglier path, as the defamation plaintiff gets to experience both the Streisand Effect AND the unceremonious smackdown of their lawsuit colliding with provider immunity under 47 USC 230.
But the plaintiff here (Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital in Long Beach, CA) has taken a novel tack, attempting an end-run around CDA 230 immunity by alleging that Yelp is running an “extortion scheme” by offering to take down negative reviews in exchange for cash.
It’s a creative effort by the plaintiff’s lawyers, Jared Beck (who has two client reviews on Avvo – hey, Jared; wanna pay to take those down? Just kidding!) and Gregory Weston, but here’s a prediction: The suit is going to get booted, and quick.
You see, Yelp sells advertising. One of the benefits of advertising is that an advertiser can choose a “favorite” review to highlight at the top of all user reviews; after that, the reviews are sorted by an algorithm that takes into account the age of the review, how helpful other users found it, etc. It’s a nice balance between the promotion inherent in advertising and consumer transparency (Avvo offers a similar client review-featuring benefit to advertisers and Avvo Pro subscribers).
It’s a safe bet that what really happened here is that the plaintiff confused Yelp’s advertising sales pitch (“become an advertiser and choose the most glowingly positive review to move to the top of the stack”) with extortion, ignoring the fact that Yelp, like Avvo, has a firm policy against deleting most reviews and internal processes that separate advertising sales from the site’s editorial function.
Isn’t this a whole lot likelier than the theory that Yelp is operating an extortion racket? What’s more, if Yelp were extorting businesses, wouldn’t you expect to find few, if any, negative reviews amongst advertisers? Take a look at any random sponsored listing on Yelp (say, for example, Seattle’s Stellar Pizza & Ale). You’ll see lots of reviews, some of them quite negative. The beauty of a healthy reputational ecosystem is that these reviews – positive, negative and in between – paint a composite picture that gives potential customers a wealth of information. They also illustrate that if Yelp is taking payments to delete negative reviews, its advertisers are getting phenomenally poor value.
As Yelp pointed out in its initial response, “running a good business is hard; filing a lawsuit is easy.” Don’t be surprised if the ultimate lesson Dogs and Cats learns here is that it’s even easier – and a lot more effective – to ignore or learn from your bad reviews and focus on delighting your customers. Their word-of-mouth will move online, too.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I find it very troubling that you would wade into the facts of a case in which you have no involvement and that you would purport to know what really happened in that case. There are a whole slew of companies out there essentially selling awards or listings and what the plaintiff alleges here is not all that different. Also, do you honestly believe that no company has rogue salespeople? Are you also unfamiliar with companies looking the other way when their people do things they should not be doing, so long as those things bring in more business. I find your willful and deliberate purported naivete incredbily troubling and, yes, I even fear that my commenting here may negatively impact my perfect 10.0 rating (or the ratings of others in my firm) because I for one do not for a minute believe that human nature simply disappears when one joins a big company.
February 26th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Dan, we obviously have very different perspectives.
Media companies must have a very clean line between editorial and advertising functions. Blur that line and your credibility is gone. The Yelp people understand that maintaining this credibility is key to long-term business success.
The plaintiffs here aren’t alleging a “rogue salesperson” who made some promises he couldn’t keep; they’re alleging an “extortion scheme.” I’ve got no problem opining that this allegation is bunk.
And why would you think writing about this would jeopardize your Avvo Rating? As you know, the Avvo Rating algorithm is applied objectively to all attorneys. What’s more, we’ve got no motivation to reduce your rating – like Yelp, Avvo’s ultimate success depends on the credibility and transparency of the information we provide.
February 26th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I tried to post a legitimate review of a Washington DC attorney who urged me to sign an illegal agreement. When I showed the agreement to my California counsel, she couldn’t believe anybody would even draw up an agreement like the one she drew up, much less urge anybody to sign it.
So I guess you could say, with regard to Yelp, and with Avvo, unless you have something positive to add, they’re just not interested in critical reviews. Avvo refused to publish my commnet. Kudos to Avvo.
February 26th, 2010 at 10:18 pm
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February 27th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Josh,
I guess I am just far more cynical than you. I see massive amounts of corporate greed and lying out there (both in the press and in my law practice) and countless other companies selling awards and rankings, and so I do have zero faith in either Yelp or Avvo (or any other company for that matter) maintaining what you call the “very clean line between editorial and advertising functions. I have no evidence that either Yelp or Avvo have ever failed to maintain this so-called clean line of which you speak, but my own instincts regarding human nature make me very very skeptical. Television news and newspapers consistently fail to maintain this line, but we are to believe internet companies are better at this?
Your reality is just so much different than mine; I only wish I could live in your world because I’m guessing it is all just wonderful where you are. Sorry, but I can’t and so I am just not willing to say what is just in a case in which I do not know the facts. I guess I just think that is what trials (and not blogs) are for.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
I noticed you have not run my last comment. I certainly hope that you do, as your not doing so would only lend credence to my argument that editorial and advertising (read money) are not always separated by the “clear line” you claim. Anyway, it would seem this whole Yelp thing is gaining real steam, as you can see here: http://yelpclassaction.wordpress.com//
Seems more than one company (I’m gonna bet it’s gonna end up being thousands, maybe even tens of thousands) are going to be claiming extortion, as it is turning into a class action: http://yelpclassaction.wordpress.com/
I would also note that Avvo itself allows attorneys to pay extra to get their client reviews highlighted. Isn’t that itself a blurring of the “clear line” between advertising and editorial?
February 28th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Josh,
Negative reviews are part of our business. If you please 100% of the people 100% of the time, it looks fraudulent. It is not possible for lawyers.
I have a negative review on AVVO who was someone I gave a full refund to.
Some people are impossible and that is part of our business as lawyers.
Just like I am sure AVVO, Inc CEO Mark Britton is impossible sometimes for you to handle (Just Kidding)
Kind Regards,
Okorie “Dr. DUI” Okorocha, Attorney
March 1st, 2010 at 10:04 am
Shari, Avvo looks at every client review to ensure compliance with our community guidelines. We end up not approving about 25-30% of all client reviews, both positive and negative, for reasons ranging from ad hominem attacks to astroturfing. If you want to contact me directly I’d be happy to look at the review in question and tell you why it wasn’t posted.
March 1st, 2010 at 6:31 pm
[...] Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman had this to say about what he’s called the conspiracy theory. I did some further searching and found one attorney who thinks the Yelp! suit will get tossed quickly. [...]
March 1st, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Brilliant piece by the Dean of the Business School at Toronto University, that helps explain why I am so wary of the idea that we should “just trust” companies like Yelp to do right by us all: http://is.gd/9uERm
Josh, I hope you read it and develop just the tiniest bit of skepticism. Just enough so that you don’t automatically take the word of a company just because it is a company.
March 4th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
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December 4th, 2010 at 6:15 am
i too tried to publish a bad review on yelp and it was removed. my review was very legitimate and yet yelp decided not to publish it
December 20th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
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