Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has filed a lawsuit against several major advertisers, claiming they orchestrated a “massive advertiser boycott” that deprived the company of billions in revenue and violated antitrust laws. The lawsuit, lodged in a Texas federal court, targets the World Federation of Advertisers and its member companies: Unilever, Mars, CVS Health, and Orsted.
The complaint accuses the advertising group’s Global Alliance for Responsible Media initiative of coordinating a pause in advertising following Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in late 2022. This overhaul of the platform’s staff and policies is said to have triggered the boycott.
Musk’s Response And Legal Context
Elon Musk posted on X about the lawsuit, “now it is war” after what he described as two years of receiving “empty words” despite his efforts. X CEO Linda Yaccarino further elaborated that the lawsuit was based partly on evidence uncovered by the US House Judiciary Committee. According to Yaccarino, this evidence points to a “systematic illegal boycott” orchestrated by a group of companies.
The House Judiciary Committee had recently examined whether current laws are adequate to prevent anticompetitive practices in online advertising. The lawsuit focuses on the early phase of Musk’s Twitter ownership, not the more recent disputes that arose about a year later.
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