The FTC has been investigating the business practices of Yelp for quite some time now, but it appears that it is finally coming to a conclusion. In the past, Yelp has paid $450,000 to settle one investigation, which was related to alleged COPPA violations due to improper collection of information from members under the age of 13. The latest investigations were centered on complaints and perceptions that the review company manipulated the information displayed in an attempt to boost profits.
The accusation was that Yelp would not prominently show positive reviews for a specific business, unless they were paid members. This, of course, would encourage many businesses to sign up for premium accounts and even take out advertising on the site.
With this most recent investigation by the FTC coming to a close, Yelp has not received any fines or other negative action against them. Yelp, of course, sees this as a vindication against any accusers who claim that they do anything but provide a platform for honest reviews by actual customers of businesses.
You can read the full blog post from Yelp on this case HERE.
