Yelp! In the Clear

Yelp!, one of the biggest and most influential review sites in the world, has constantly been hit by claims that it manipulates its reviews so that its advertisers get higher rankings. This had led to an investigation by the FTC(Federal Trade Commision), early 2014. Nearly 2,045 complaints were filed by the company which led to the inquiry.

However, the good news is that the FTC has concluded the investigation without any action taken. In a blog post, the tech giant stated “The FTC looked into our recommendation software, what we say to businesses about it, what our salespeople say about our advertising programs, and how we ensure that our employees are not able to manipulate the ratings and reviews that we display on our platform. After nearly a year of scrutiny, the FTC decided to close its investigation without taking further action.”

This is the second time that Yelp has been investigated by the FTC and not been penalized for anything. Yelp claims that many of the complaints filed were just by unhappy customers who weren’t happy with their rating or reviews on yelp.

We are happy to hear it! What would we do without Yelp!