Angie’s List Manipulates Search Results, Class Action Alleges

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Earlier this month, Angie’s List Inc. was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it deceptively manipulates search results without consumers’ knowledge, to boost the company’s economic gain.

Angie’s List offers paid memberships that allow consumers to share reviews of local service providers on the website www.AngiesList.com. Reviewers critique a number of factors, including overall experience, price and quality, and the scores are totaled among all member reviews to determine the service provider’s overall rating.

Plaintiff Gary Glick of New Jersey alleges that “Angie’s List falsely assures consumers that a service provider’s position in a member’s search results ‘is determined by their recent grades and number of reviews. Companies with the best ratings from members will appear first.’”

Glick claims he signed up for an Angie’s List membership under the belief that the rankings were entirely consumer-generated and that they could not be manipulated by the service providers or by Angie’s List.

According to the class action lawsuit, Angie’s List assures consumers that companies can’t pay to be included in the search results. In addition, the company does not allow users to post anonymous reviews in effort to maintain the integrity of the reviews posted on the website.

“Statements such as these, reflected in a consistent, constant and pervasive mass-marketing campaign, misleadingly encourage existing members, as well as potential new clients, to believe that Angie’s List search results and related content are based on unfiltered feedback from consumers, allowing consumers to access this valuable and reliable information unaffected and unshaped by any outside input, including from paid advertisers or Angie’s List itself,” the Angie’s List class action lawsuit says.

According to Angie’s List class action lawsuit, service providers are allowed to pay “advertising” fees to boost their search rankings on Angie’s List, though the company conceals this fact from consumers. Glick points to an investigative report that found higher-ranked companies had paid $12,000 to $15,000 to appear higher on Angie’s List. Another service provider was reportedly quoted a fee of $50,000 to be ranked higher on the list.

Glick says this practice “distorts the integrity of search results because a consumer cannot be sure if the search actually located the best-rate service provider.”

The Angie’s List class action lawsuit accuses the company of using unfair, deceptive and misleading practices to lure consumers into paying for access to purportedly unfiltered search results and rankings for local service providers.

Glick filed the search ranking manipulation class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and other paying members of Angie’s List. He asserts claims for breach of contract and violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. He is seeking monetary damages, restitution, injunctive relief and declaratory relief.

Glick is represented by Richard M. Golomb, Ruben Honik, Kenneth J. Grunfeld and David J. Stanoch of Golomb & Honik PC.

The Angie’s List Search Ranking Class Action Lawsuit is Gary Glick v. Angie’s List Inc., Case No. 2:16-cv-00546-MCA-MAH, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.