In response to a Freedom of Information Act request made by The Wall Street Journal, the Federal Trade Commission has published (PDF) a letter stating that it has received more than 2,000 complaints filed against Yelp since 2008. An unnamed company spokesperson also told The Wall Street Journal that Yelp receives on average six subpoenas per month ordering the company to hand over information, sometimes about its anonymous reviewers. 
 
 Yelp did not immediately respond to questions from Ars. 
 
 Further Reading Yelp sues small San Diego law firm over alleged fake reviews Since the FTC’s publication of the FOIA letter, Yelp’s stock price has fallen more than 12 percent. 
 
 As Ars has previously reported, Yelp has been publicly accused of extortion for years. Its practice of asking for money from businesses that are automatically listed on the site, whether they wish to be or not, in exchange for preferred placement on the site has been condemned by some business owners. 
 
 Earlier this year, a case involving a Virginia woman who left a scathing review for a local contractor—who responded in kind—resulted in both parties defaming each other, with damages for no one. In 2013, a small San Diego law firm that was sued by Yelp resulted in binding arbitration over alleged fake reviews. 
 
 Yelp is also currently facing a lawsuit brought by a Virginia carpet cleaner who says that his business suffered after he refused Yelp’s paid services and subsequently received negative reviews. Joe Hadeed sued to compel Yelp to turn over the names of those who he believes defamed him, and he won at two lower court levels (PDF). Yelp has now appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court to hear the case. Paul Alan Levy, a well-known First Amendment lawyer, is representing Yelp in the case and has argued in previous briefs that under American law, everyone has the right to free speech, even anonymous speech. 
 
 In the company’s most recent annual report (10-K), which was filed in March with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Yelp reported that it lost more than $10 million in 2013—a total of $57.5 million in losses over the last five years. 

 In the case, the owner of a Virginia carpet cleaning business sued Yelp, demanding that it reveal the identities of anonymous reviewers who disparaged his company. 
 
 
 
 Owner Joe Hadeed told The Wall Street Journal that the bad reviews—at least seven of which he believes are fraudulent—sank his business by 30 percent. A spokesperson for Yelp told the Journal that the company gets approximately six subpoenas a month, some demanding information about reviewers' identities. 
 
 Yelp's stock is down substantially from its all-time high on March 5. But should investors be concerned? Not really, Cowen analyst Kevin Kopelman said in a note Thursday.
– How much do some small businesses hate Yelp? So much that the Federal Trade Commission has gotten more than 2,046 complaints about the company since 2008, the Wall Street Journal reports. Most are from small businesses saying they've been hit with unfair or fraudulent reviews—sometimes right after declining to advertise on the site. (Yelp denies that advertising has any impact on reviews.) A 1996 law protects Yelp and similar sites from lawsuits based on user reviews, but does not protect the users themselves, and Yelp says it gets about six subpoenas a month, many of them seeking reviewers' real names so businesses can sue. This month, Virginia's Supreme Court will rule on whether Yelp has to give up those names, thanks to a lawsuit from the owner of a carpet cleaning service, who says his annual sales fell $2.5 million after a spate of bad Yelp reviews that he couldn't match to actual customers. Yelp argues that the First Amendment protects the reviewers, but so far, lower courts have sided with the shop. Yelp's stock fell hard after the Journal's report, Ars Technica observes. But one analyst predicts that Yelp will weather the storm, CNBC reports. "It's not like all users will suddenly have to disclose themselves," he says. For more controversy concerning the review site, click here.