X drops Unilever from its ‘advertiser boycott’ lawsuit

Oct 11, 2024 11:45 PM - 4 months ago 149500

X is dropping claims against Unilever successful its lawsuit that accuses advertisers and brands of participating successful an “illegal boycott” of the company. The claims against Unilever, which owns family names for illustration Dove and Hellmann’s, were dismissed today.

Last fall, X besides sued the nonprofit Media Matters for America successful an effort to soundlessness the group aft it reported that ads for awesome brands for illustration Apple and IBM were appearing alongside Nazi content. IBM paused advertizing connected X pursuing the report.

This is conscionable 1 of the lawsuits Musk has revenge against critics and erstwhile business partners, arsenic he’s besides suing OpenAI and founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman for the 2nd time. (Musk previously filed and then dropped a akin suit earlier this year.)

On X, the platform’s agency relationship stated it had “reached an agreement” pinch Unilever and will “continue [its] partnership” pinch the company. X didn’t instantly respond to questions astir the statement aliases position aliases what it meant by the “ecosystem-wide solution” it referenced successful its X post. Unilever declined to remark connected the record. The suit still names CVS, Mars, and Ørsted.

The advertiser antitrust suit revenge this summer targeted the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which had led an manufacture inaugural called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Under the GARM agreement, brands refused to advertise connected platforms that fell short of definite information standards. In its suit, X claimed that WFA and different named brands for illustration Unilever conspired to “collectively withhold billions of dollars successful advertizing revenue” from the platform. Perplexingly, X besides said it had joined GARM astir a period earlier it sued WFA.

Shortly aft the X lawsuit, GARM announced it was discontinuing its operations, saying, “GARM is simply a small, not-for-profit initiative, and caller allegations that unluckily misconstrue its intent and activities person caused a distraction and importantly drained its resources and finances.”

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