X Corp. is seeking to add Nestle, Abbott Labs, Colgate-Palmolive, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods, and Shell as defendants in its ad boycott lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and others in an proposed amended complaint filed Saturday.
The suit, originally filed in August 2024, alleged that the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and its now defunct Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), as well as several members -- violated U.S. antitrust laws by scheming to deprive X of ad revenue.
The Elon Musk-owned platform alleged that between November 2022 and December 2022, at least 18 advertisers that were members of GARM stopped purchasing ads from Twitter.
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The social platform's initial complaint named energy company Ørsted, food companies Unilever and Mars, and healthcare company CVS Health as defendants.
In October 2024, X dropped its claims against Unilever, following an undisclosed "agreement" between the two companies.
In November 2024, X amended the suit to include Amazon's Twitch unit. The newest version of the lawsuit was filed Saturday as a proposed amended complaint.
GARM, which focused on brand safety, shut down soon after X filed suit.
Established in 2019 by the WFA, GARM's members included large brand advertisers and trade associations -- including the U.S.'s Association of National Advertisers, American Association of Advertising Agencies and Interactive Advertising Bureau, as well as big agencies such as Dentsu, GroupM, Havas Media, IPG, Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Media.
A spokesperson for the World Federation of Advertisers previously said allegations that GARM engaged in anti-competitive behavior are baseless.
The spokesperson added that the organization created “voluntary industry standards on brand safety and suitability which media sellers and ad tech companies can voluntarily adopt, adapt or reject.”
X alleges that GARM was “not a mere standard-setting body,” arguing in the complaint that the organization was able to force social platforms to change their business operations.
“By forcing social media platforms to adopt and adhere to the GARM Brand Safety Standards, GARM-member advertisers and advertising agencies force social media platforms to incur certain costs previously borne by advertisers,” X alleges in its complaint, brought in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas.
“Before the Brand Safety Standards, each advertiser negotiated individually with social media platforms to customize the reach of its ads and to avoid unwanted content,” X alleges, adding that some GARM members “found these individualized negotiations to be unsatisfying and costly.”
The complaint continues: “Through the Brand Safety Standards, GARM-member advertisers collectively shift to social media platforms a portion of the costs previously borne by advertisers by forcing the social media platforms (i) to proactively remove certain content ... and (ii) to adopt tools to allow advertisers to more easily avoid certain other content subject.”
X sued three weeks after the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee issued a report accusing GARM of coordinating action by corporations, ad agencies and other industry groups in order to “demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content deemed disfavored by GARM and its members.”
When the report came out, House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) -- who has repeatedly accused tech companies, Democrats and others of collaborating to suppress conservative voices online -- tweeted that GARM's strategy is “a coordinated boycott against conservative outlets.”