YELLLLLP! BusinessWeek is reporting a law suit against Yelp that demonstrates just how nasty the terrain has become for small businesses on the Web:

Yelp routinely highlights negative customer reviews unless business owners agree to advertise on Yelp.

“Lady Justice needs a lawsuit filter,” writes Yelp Co-founder Jeremy Stoppleman. PUHLEASE. The arrogance! Yo, Stoppleman: you are supposed to be the champion of small businesses. How about answering the way a small business has to answer: “Gee, that’s terrible. We are looking into it immediately. If anyone is doing this heads will roll, we promise you that.” He is nothing but tone deaf. (The tone deafness only a $100 Million in VC funding can bring!)

Small business people know that there will always be wing nuts who sashè into their shop with an ax to grind.  AND consumers know that there are businesses out there who are schysters.  Traditionally the Better Business Bureau served as the wing nut/schyster filter. Overall, they did a pretty decent job of it. Beyond being tone-deaf,  Yelp needs a wing nut/shyster filter, but being a free-wheeling open forum, Yelp simply cannot provide that on the scale required by the millions of small businesses.

Yelp is  most likely, voraciously burning through its $100 million. I can hear the VCs, putting pressure on Yelp to deliver.  And why would small businesses pay for what Yelp is offering – which is essentially bupkus? Their businesses are listed on Yelp already. I have no doubt Yelp resorted to shaking down small businesses, because that is the only “value” they can offer.

If it happened to you, join the suit. Make it a class action. They deserve it!