The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Elon Musk's X Corp. have
settled a nearly two-year-old antitrust suit over the WFA's Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, other than stating that it
agreed it "will not form or restart GAR or a similar initiative."
Following X
Corp.'s August 2024 antitrust suit against GARM, the WFA and a group of WFA member marketers, the WFA discontinued GARM on Aug. 9, 2024.
The suit was settled on appeal after a district court judge threw out X Corp.'s lawsuit, ruling that even if the WFA and other
companies had engaged in a "group boycott," the allegations in X Corp.'s complaint against it wouldn't warrant the conclusion that the companies violated antitrust law.
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In that
ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Jane Boyle in the Northern District of Texas write X Corp. didn't allege that the defendants intended to boost one of X Corp.'s rivals by engaging in the
supposed boycott, and that the defendants weren't alleged to have tried to prevent other companies from advertising on X's platform.
X Corp.'s suit ironically came a month after X Corp.
officially rejoined as a member of GARM after a hiatus, and it's suit was expanded
to Amazon's Twitch, which X Corp. subsequently withdrew, though X Corp.
threatened to eventually add other defendants.
The WFA statement did not address the status of the member marketers that were also named in the suit, but based on the last public disclosure, it also included energy companies
Ørsted (based in Denmark) and Shell; food giants Mars, Nestle and Tyson; healthcare company CVS; pharmaceutical firm Abbott; toothpaste and personal care brand Colgate-Palmolive; toy maker
Lego; and social platform Pinterest.
Asked about the status of those defendants or the explicit terms of the WFA/X Corp. settlement a WFA spokesperson declined to comment.
Court
records as of Wednesday morning indicate X Corp.'s appellate brief against the advertisers is due Aug. 5.
"Today, the World Federation of Advertisers and X Corp. are putting the
litigation involving the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) behind them. This resets the relationship between the two organizations," reads the WFA statement, adding, "WFA reiterates its
commitment to freedom of speech, a principle first included in WFA’s founding constitution back in 1953, and a principle it shares with X."
