A class action lawsuit filed in California seeks to get Yelpers paid for reviews. The lawsuit claims that Yelp runs a cult like environment and instead of paying the reviewers, it offers them badges, titles such as “Elite”, praise, free liquor and food, and free promotional Yelp attire, such as red panties with ‘Make Me Yelp!’
We spoke to one of the plaintiffs, Lilly Jueng, who is an Elite reviewer. She claimed that Yelp was very restrictive of what she was able to post and cancelled her account when they were not happy with a review that she left. “Reviewers should be able to post any review they want on any public company without restrictions,” said Jueng.
The plaintiffs also claim that yelp often hosted parties for Elite reviewers and the Yelpers were expected to leave positive reviews for the restaurant hosting the event.
We also spoke to Daniel Bernath, one of the lead attorneys on the case. He stated: “A worker is not permitted to waive their rights to wages under the federal Fair Standards Labor Act.” Mr. Bernath feels that they have real good chance of winning the case based on current labor laws. He stated that it does not matter that some people may think this lawsuit is ridiculous, because the laws are build in a way that supports their claims. “The trial court judge will read the complaint and will apply the law. It is a settled law and we are confident that our clients will get paid for their labors.”
Our CEO, Pierre Zarokian, has written a more detailed article for Search Engine Watch .
