Yelp Defeats California Restaurant’s Challenge to Review Filter

Yelp Inc. defeated a California restaurant’s attempt Friday to revive a lawsuit challenging the platform over the accuracy of its review filter software.

A Los Angeles trial court’s refusal to force Yelp to disclose the source code for software designed to filter out biased or unreliable reviews doesn’t warrant reversing its decision to dismiss the restaurant’s false advertising claims, the appellate court said.

Multiversal Enterprises-Mammoth Properties, LLC, which owns several restaurants in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., sued Yelp in 2012 over marketing statements, including “Yelp uses the filter to give consumers the most trusted reviews,” and “Yelp has an automated filter ...