Judge dismisses X lawsuit accusing advertisers of illegal boycott

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk’s social platform X against a coalition of advertisers that organized a boycott against the social media company.

U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle found that X did not suffer any antitrust injury and that the court did not have jurisdiction over several of the companies in the lawsuit.

X sued the World Federation of Advertisers and its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative in 2024, alleging the group violated antitrust laws by conspiring to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue.”

The suit also named several major companies, including Unilever, Mars and CVS. It later added Shell, Nestle, Lego and others to the case.

In Thursday’s ruling, Boyle noted that a group of competitors who refuse to buy from a particular supplier can cause antitrust harm only if it is meant to allow another supplier to corner the market.

“X has not alleged that the boycott against it allows or is intended to allow a competing social media company to corner the supply market for online advertising space,” she wrote.

The judge also said a supplier can suffer antitrust injury if a contingent of competitors seeks to cut off access to other downstream customers. But the advertisers in the case did not impose a “’do not dare go around us’ restriction,” Boyle said.

“The conspiring advertisers here did not attempt to force X to advertise with only GARM advertisers so that they could control the social media advertising market or any other market,” she said. “They merely decided that they would not buy from X for their own advertising needs, notwithstanding if X sold advertising space to anyone else.”

Musk has had a contentious relationship with advertisers since he first acquired X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022. As he rapidly made changes to the platform’s content moderation policies, numerous advertisers pulled back, drawing the ire of the tech mogul.

The billionaire lashed out at advertisers publicly, at one point telling them to “go f— yourself” and specifically calling out former Disney CEO Bob Iger over the company’s decision to halt advertising.