Google is being sued by a restaurant chain

Google is being sued by a US restaurant chain. The reasoning of the lawsuit was cited as Google redirecting food orders to third-party services instead of redirecting them to the restaurant’s own site without the company’s consent.

Another lawsuit against Google

According to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Left Field Holdings, Google directs users to third-party services without the company’s permission through the ‘Order Online’ button in its search engine, with promises of affordable prices. The restaurant states that Google allows a method known as ‘bait-and-switch’. Customers ordering from third-party ordering platforms requires the business to pay a commission of 15%-30% to these platforms.

In the text of the lawsuit: “Google designed their website to appear to the user as being offered, sponsored, and approved by the restaurant, but these are undoubtedly a tactic used by Google to increase orders and clicks by the restaurant.” statements were included.

Google spokesperson Ashley Thompson: “Our goal is to connect customers to restaurants they want to order food from and make it easy for them to do so via the ‘Order Online’ button. We provide tools for operators to indicate whether they support online orders or prefer a particular provider, including their own ordering website. We do not charge any commission for orders or integrations with this feature.” He argued that they were right about the case.

The business wants the current lawsuit to gain status as a class action lawsuit to include other businesses that suffered losses through Google’s ‘Place Order Online’ button.