• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 26, 2024

LinkedIn has agreed to pay approximately $6.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over allegedly inflated ad metrics, according to court papers filed Friday.

If approved by U.S. District Court Judge Susan van Keulen in San Jose, the settlement will resolve a battle dating to 2020, when the tech company TopDevz and recruiting platform Noirefy alleged in a class-action complaint that LinkedIn's erroneous metrics allowed it to charge inflated prices for ads.

The deal calls for the settlement fund to be distributed to U.S. advertisers that purchased ads on LinkedIn between January 1, 2015 and May 31, 2023.

TopDevz and Noirefy sued soon after LinkedIn said it “may have overreported” ad impressions and video views on some campaigns. By this time, the company had fixed the measurement glitch.

The company also said the erroneous metrics potentially affected more than 418,000 customers, and that it would credit the accounts of affected advertisers.

But TopDevz and Noirefy contended that the incorrect metrics information led them to purchase more ads, and pay higher prices for them.

TopDevz and Noirfy raised several claims, including that LinkedIn violated California's false advertising law as well as a law that prohibits unfair business practices.

van Keulen dismissed the case in December 2021, ruling that companies can only sue for unfair business practices or false advertising when monetary damages won't remedy the alleged violation.

TopDevz and Noirefy appealed to the 9th Circuit. While the appeal was pending, the advertisers and LinkedIn reached a settlement. Terms were not disclosed until Friday.

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