Yelp complains to FTC that Google is violating 2012 settlement by scraping its content
Yelp accuses Google of unfairly scraping its content
Yelp complains to FTC that Google is violating 2012
settlement
Yelp had previously complained about its reviews being
used in Google’s local-business listings.
By JACK NICAS Published: Sept 11, 2017 7:29 p.m. ET
Online-reviews firm Yelp Inc. alleged that Google is
breaking a promise it made as part of a 2012 regulatory settlement to not
scrape content from certain third-party sites including Yelp, escalating its
years-long battle against the search giant.
Yelp said in a letter late Sunday to Federal Trade
Commission Chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen that Alphabet Inc.’s Google is using
Yelp photos for local-business listings in its search results, despite Yelp’s
formal request that Google not pull such content from its site.
As part of a December 2012 settlement to end an FTC
investigation into Google, the tech giant agreed to not use content, including
photos and user reviews, from third-party sites that opted out of such
scraping. Google’s commitment lasts through 2017 and applies to a variety of
its products, including its local-business listings.
“This is a flagrant violation of Google’s promises to the
FTC, and the FTC should reopen the Google case immediately,” said Luther Lowe,
Yelp’s public-policy chief.
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