![]() ![]() The lawsuit says Groupon, who has admitted that it relies heavily on search engine marketing and optimization to drive traffic to its platform, does not and cannot actually offer customers any of the discounted services it advertises for Salon Phoenix or many of the other businesses that appear on its website without consent. “These businesses do not work hard to develop their goodwill and reputations for tech companies to misappropriate and profit from their efforts.” “Small businesses do not exist to line the pockets of tech companies,” the case scathes. Per the case, Groupon does not pay businesses for the use of their information, nor for inaccurately describing them on its website. Ultimately, Groupon utilizes the goodwill and reputations of scores of small businesses to “manipulate internet search results and therefore drive web traffic to its own website,” the lawsuit alleges. “Yet, Salon Phoenix appears on Groupon’s website, with its business inaccurately and falsely described as ‘a day spa that caters to both men and women’ and one that ‘happily accepts walk-in appointments.’” ![]() “ Salon Phoenix does not need Groupon’s help to find new customers because it takes only a limited number of clients on an appointment-only basis,” the complaint reads. Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ’s free weekly newsletter here. These unauthorized postings, which appear on search engines and are replete with “stock language” meant to confuse consumers, “serve no useful purpose” beyond diverting traffic away from the actual businesses’ websites and toward Groupon’s website, the filing says. The 50-page complaint alleges Groupon, a platform where businesses can offer their goods and services at a discount, has taken to listing tens of thousands of small businesses on its website without their permission or consent. High-end hair salons in Los Angeles and Hoboken, New Jersey allege in a proposed class action that Groupon has illegally profited from the misappropriation of the “goodwill and reputations” of tens of thousands of small businesses nationwide by falsely affiliating them with Groupon while inaccurately describing their services and operations.
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