\n<\/p>\n
X is now suing more advertisers in an antitrust lawsuit focusing on what the company\u2019s CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a \u201csystematic illegal boycott.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company formerly known as Twitter first filed the lawsuit<\/a> against the World Federation of Advertisers and its brand safety initiative the Global Alliance of Responsible Media in August 2024.<\/p>\n Shortly afterwards, the WFA discontinued GARM<\/a>, writing that \u201crecent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances.\u201d At the same time, the organization\u2019s CEO reportedly told members<\/a> that it would fight the lawsuit and \u201cdemonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all our activities.\u201d<\/p>\n X subsequently added advertisers including Twitch<\/a> as defendants in the suit. Now, as initially reported by Business Insider<\/a>, an amended complaint<\/a> has expanded the suit even further to include Nestl\u00e9, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell.<\/p>\n The complaint alleges that the WFA \u201corganized an advertiser boycott of Twitter through GARM, with the goal of coercing Twitter to comply with the GARM Brand Safety Standards to the satisfaction of GARM.\u201d And it claims that these efforts succeeded in harming Twitter\/X, with \u201cat least\u201d 18 GARM-affiliated advertisers stopping their purchase of ads on Twitter between November and December 2022, and other advertisers \u201csubstantially\u201d reducing their spending.<\/p>\n \u201cThe majority of X\u2019s advertising revenue today comes from small- and medium-sized businesses that are not GARM members or clients of GARM-member advertising agencies,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cAs demand for advertising on X has declined as a result of the boycott, the price X\u2019s remaining advertisers are willing to pay has declined as well.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, the lawsuit claims that ad prices on X \u201cremain well below those charged by X\u2019s closest competitors in the social media advertising market,\u201d so \u201cby refraining from purchasing advertising from X, boycotting advertisers are forgoing a valuable opportunity to purchase low-priced advertising inventory on a platform with brand safety that meets or exceeds industry standards.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit isn\u2019t the only place where executives have offered a pessimistic assessment of X\u2019s business. The company\u2019s owner Elon Musk reportedly told employees<\/a> in January that \u201cuser growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we\u2019re barely breaking even.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n