Advertising boycott shows effect: X now also sues Lego, Pinterest and Nestlè
After the Twitter takeover, several companies stopped advertising there. The service has filed a lawsuit against this and is now targeting other companies.
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Elon Musk's short messaging service X has expanded its lawsuit against companies that do not want to place advertisements and is now accusing even more companies of a business-damaging and illegal boycott. This is the result of an addendum to the lawsuit filed last summer, which has now been made public by TechCrunch and others.
Nestlé, the pharmaceutical company Abbott, Colgate-Palmolive, Lego, Pinterest, the food company Tyson and Shell are now also being sued. The advertising industry association World Federation of Advertisers, Mars, CVS Health, Ørsted and Twitch are already targets of the lawsuit. Unilever was removed following a settlement with X.
The lawsuit has already claimed victims
The lawsuit was filed last summer. At the time, Elon Musk's short message service took offense at the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). This initiative of the World Federation of Advertisers aimed to prevent the financial rewarding of illegal or harmful content through advertising money and to protect the reputation of its members in this regard. X (formerly Twitter) was also one of the members. The initiative was dissolved shortly after the lawsuit was filed. As a small, non-profit organization, it could not continue its work in light of the allegations, it was said at the time. However, this does not mean that the lawsuit is off the table.
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The defendants are accused by X of organizing an advertising boycott against the company following the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk in order to force compliance with the GARM guidelines. Because the service failed to comply with the agreed guidelines, several advertising agencies advised their clients in November 2022 not to place any paid advertising on Twitter until further notice. After Twitter initially denied the allegations, the service promised to take steps to comply with the guidelines again. However, this has not changed the lack of advertising.
The amended complaint now states that the short message service has suffered damage as a result of the boycott. The boycott still has the "intended effect", X admits. Most advertisements on X are now placed by small and medium-sized companies, and demand has fallen overall. As a result, the prices that the remaining advertising customers would be willing to pay have also fallen. The court should therefore order the defendants to pay damages and enforce an end to the boycott. However, it is not clear how this fits in with Musk's appeal to the contrary. He had called on advertisers:"Don't advertise. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear?"
(mho)
