Cengage Advantage Books: Foundations of the Legal Environment of Business 2nd Edition by Marianne Jennings, Albert Napier, Marianne Jennings

Exercise 3

Yelpers and Honesty
Yelp.com is a website that has postings from average people about their experiences with local businesses. "Yelpers," as they are called, write their own reviews of these businesses. So familiar is the website and its power that some local businesses have begun posting signs such as "No Yelpers."
Business owners have complained because they are not permitted to respond to the reviews unless they advertise on the site. However, the Yelp founders respond that the Yellow Pages have always been "pay-to-play" and that Yelp provides the "little guys" a chance to participate in the evaluation of a business. Also, the founders point out that small businesses that cannot afford ads in the Yellow Pages have an oppor-tunity to attract customers when they provide good products and services.
Yelp does offer the various ad services:
Companies can pay to have their companies featured prominently.
The ad can link to a business page on Yelp.
The company can pay to have more favorable reviews moved to the top of its business page.
Banner ads are available.
What ethical issues are involved in the relationship between the site and the businesses? What is the effect of the statement "Well, the Yellow Pages have always done it this way"? Do you see opportunities for misrep-resentation? Or does the site prevent misrepresentation? What issues are related to libel with regard to the site? Are there any conflict-of-interest issues? What would stop competitors from posting "yelps" about each other?
For more information: Dan Post, "The Coffee Was Lousy. The Wait Was Long," New York Times, May 21, 2008, p. NY 6.