Movie Criticizes Yelp Business Practices, May Be Leading To Falling Share Prices

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Shares of San Francisco-based online review site Yelp down closed down 3.5 percent on Thursday, possibly due to a documentary film project criticizing the website's practices.

At the end of trading on Thursday, shares of YELP closed at $45.18 a share, down from $46.82 on Wednesday. The stock price has gone down 17 percent in the last three months.

The film, called "Billion Dollar Bully" is currently in the process of raising funds on Kickstarter. As of late Thursday night, 125 people have pledged $15,501.

In a trailer for the film, business owners who accuse Yelp of "extortion" after they refused to pay for advertising on their site told their stories.

"It is a racket with what they do. I mean, they really make you pay for their services, or you get more and more negative reviews and it negatively affects your business," Chris Paterna of the restaurant Lungomare in Oakland said in the movie's trailer.

Yelp has repeatedly denied those claims. "There is no merit to the claims they appear to highlight, which have been repeatedly dismissed by courts of law, investigated by government regulators, including the FTC, and disproven by academic study," a company spokesperson told Business Insider.

The filmmakers are seeking $60,000 by late April.