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Description

This company is an online site that connects people with local businesses.

Reason for Rating

BBB rating is based on 13 factors. Get the details about the factors considered.

Based on BBB files, this business has a BBB Rating of No Rating. The reason is as follows:

• BBB does not have sufficient information to issue a rating on this business.

Customer Complaints Summary Read complaint details

Additional Complaint Information

The most recent review of Yelp's complaints was done in April of 2015. Complaints concern business owners who were concerned that their positive reviews are being filtered and negative reviews are remaining, potentially giving consumers a skewed view of their business. Some complaints also concern business owners alleging that there are false or inaccurate reviews on their Yelp listing and that Yelp will not remove, though the business owner feels he/she has provided proof or substantiation that the review is false or inaccurate. Yelp did respond to the issues listed above by stating the following:

User-Generated Content
Yelp helps consumers find and share information about local businesses, whether positive, negative, or somewhere in between. While most of the information our users share proves useful for other consumers, we are occasionally alerted to posts which warrant removal, such as hate speech, privacy violations, and conflicts of interest. If you would like to report a questionable post, you can find more information here: http://www.yelp-support.com/Reviews_Photos?l=en_US.

Please note that we are not in a position to resolve factual disputes, and will not remove posts where there is a difference of opinion. We encourage business owners to address factual disputes by communicating amicably with the poster on Yelp through our private messaging system, or publicly responding on Yelp to the review in question. You can find more information about responding to reviews here: https://biz.yelp.com/support/responding_to_reviews.

Recommendation Software
Yelp uses automated software to recommend the reviews which best reflect the opinions of the Yelp community. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp. As a result, Yelp does not recommend every review,and the reviews that are not currently being recommended are not factored into the business's overall star rating.

Please note that our employees cannot manually override our recommendation software, which is automated precisely so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every review without being overridden by an individual's personal preferences or assessments. Nevertheless, the software runs on a daily basis, and the results can and do change on a daily basis as the software picks up new information about each business and reviewer. Last, please note that Yelp's recommendation software does not distinguish between businesses that advertise on Yelp and those that do not.
You can find more information about our recommendation software here: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews.

Advertising
Yelp sells a variety of advertising products to help businesses increase their exposure on Yelp, but Yelp does not sell advertising products which allow businesses to remove negative reviews or otherwise enhance their reputation on Yelp. You can find more information about advertising on Yelp here: http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq.

Legal
From time to time, plaintiffs' lawyers may advise their business clients to take legal action in the face of negative reviews. Before you do, please note that: (a) consumer speech is protected under the law, even when it is negative, (b) filing a lawsuit will likely draw more attention to the review than if you simply ignored it, (c) any claim you file against Yelp will likely be barred under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and (d) beware of Section 425.16 of the California Code of Civil Procedure, which may require you to pay your defendant's legal bills if you lose your lawsuit. That said, we invite you to contact Yelp in the event that you obtain a final judicial determination that the contents of a review posted on Yelp are defamatory.

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Customer Reviews Summary Read customer reviews

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• Government Actions

  Gov. Action
  Date of Action: 9/16/2014
  On September 16, 2014 The Federal Trade Commission filed a stipulated order for permanent injunction and civil penalty judgment in
  Case 3:14-cv-04163-JCS against Yelp, Inc.
  
  According to the injunction, it is alleged that Yelp, Inc. collected personal information from children under 13 years old in connection with operating their online service. The complaint further charges that Yelp violated the COPPA Rule by failing to provide notice to parents of its information practices, and to obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children.
  
  Yelp has been ordered to pay a $450,000 civil penalty and is permanently restrained and enjoined from failing to make reasonable efforts to ensure that a parent of a child receives direct notice of its practices with regard to the collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children, failing to post a prominent and clearly labeled link to an online notice of its information practices with regard to children, and failing to obtain verifiable parental consent before any collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children, including any material change in the collection, use, or disclosure practices to which the parent has previously consented.

  What government actions does BBB report on?

• Advertising Review

  BBB has nothing to report concerning Yelp.com's advertising at this time.

  What is BBB Advertising Review?

Additional Information