Judge dismisses lawsuit by Musk’s X accusing advertisers of illegal boycott

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WASHINGTON – A U.S. judge on Thursday dismissed X Corp’s antitrust lawsuit that accused the World Federation of Advertisers and major companies including Mars, CVS Health and Colgate-Palmolive of illegally boycotting billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk‘s social media company.

U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle in the federal court in Dallas said X failed to show it had suffered any harm under federal antitrust laws.

X Corp’s lawsuit, filed in 2024, said the advertisers, acting through a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media, collectively withheld “billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, previously known as Twitter.

X and the World Federation of Advertisers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit claimed the advertisers acted against their own economic self-interests in a conspiracy against the platform that violated U.S. antitrust law.

CVS and the other defendants had denied any wrongdoing and urged Boyle to dismiss the lawsuit. They argued X failed to show they acted in unison rather than making individual business decisions about when and where to spend ad dollars.

The companies in a court filing in the lawsuit said advertisers independently chose rival platforms due to concerns about X’s commitment to brand safety following Musk’s 2022 takeover, during which he fired employees they said had kept the site “welcoming to users and accommodating to family-friendly brands.”

Boyle wrote in her order that “the very nature of the alleged conspiracy does not state an antitrust claim, and the court therefore has no qualm dismissing with prejudice.”

Reporting by Mike Scarcella; editing by David Bario and Rod Nickel.