“Get all positive reviews for your business” is one of the claims that Revleap makes. Yelp’s civil complaint says that the company uses a software that helps generate many 4 or 5 star reviews that make them stick to Yelp’s front page.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in California, also accuses the people behind Revleap, as well as Revpley and YelpDirector, of cyber-squatting and false advertising (state-level).
Yelp says that the sites try to game Yelp’s system, and they use fraudulent reviews, as well as invasive spam. The complaint says that the operators of YelpDirector sent e-mails to potential clients and told them how they had software that could help them generate reviews.
As of a few days ago, Revleap stated that they had generated more than 1 million reviews, and that statement is what Yelp calls false advertisement.
Edward James Herzstock and Alec Farwell are the co-founders of the sites, while Melissa Scheinwald is the vice president of development, according to the lawsuit.
Yelp is seeking actual, statutory, as well as punitive damages from the defendants.
