Collective mass arbitration is my favorite counter to this tactic, and is dramatically more costly for the company than a class action lawsuit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/business/arbitration-overload.html
A lot of companies got spooked a few years back and walked back their arbitration agreements. I wonder what changed for companies to decide it’s worth it again. Maybe the lack of discovery in the arbitration process even with higher costs?
At this point I’m pretty sure their strategy is to take the hit in search engine quality since they have a stranglehold there anyway, and spam everyone with AI so they can come out ahead on that front with Human feedback. It’s pretty shitty, and the exact reason we would be taking down big tech monopolys.