2026-03-27 17:37:06
A lawsuit brought by Elon Musk’s X against a group of major advertisers has been dismissed in court.
Ruling the company failed to demonstrate harm under US competition law, judge Jane Boyle tossed the case after it was filed in 2024 by X Corp, the parent company of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, following a sharp decline in advertising revenue after Musk acquired the company in 2022.
The lawsuit alleged several major corporations – including Unilever, Mars and Orsted – alongside the World Federation of Advertisers had conspired to orchestrate an illegal boycott of the platform.
X Corp claimed the group’s actions deprived it of “billions of dollars” in advertising income, arguing their conduct violated US antitrust laws designed to ensure fair competition.
In her ruling, US District Judge Jane Boyle rejected those claims.
She said: “The very nature of the alleged conspiracy does not state an antitrust claim, and the court therefore has no qualm dismissing with prejudice.”
The judge added in a written statement the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an initiative linked to the World Federation of Advertisers, “did not buy advertising space from X to sell to advertisers nor did it, in such an arrangement, tell X not to sell directly to Garm’s customers”.
The lawsuit centred on claims companies had collectively reduced or withdrawn advertising from the platform after Musk introduced sweeping changes, including reinstating previously banned accounts and loosening content moderation policies.
Within a year of the acquisition, advertising revenue at X had reportedly fallen by more than half, prompting the company to pursue legal action.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Musk said: “We tried being nice for two years and got nothing but empty words. Now, it is war.”
Defendants in the case, including CVS, denied any coordinated action and argued they had acted independently in making decisions about where to allocate advertising budgets.
In court filings, they maintained that X Corp had failed to provide sufficient evidence of a conspiracy or demonstrate that the alleged behaviour breached antitrust regulations.
Judge Boyle’s ruling sided with the defendants’ position, concluding the structure of the alleged boycott did not meet the threshold required to establish an antitrust violation.
The judgement effectively brings the case to a close, dismissing it with prejudice and preventing it from being refiled in the same form.
It follows continued scrutiny of X’s business model and advertising relationships since Musk’s takeover, as the company seeks to stabilise revenue streams amid shifting policies and advertiser concerns.
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