X is now continuing more advertisers in an antitrust trial focused on what the CEO of the company, Linda Yaccarino, claimed to be an “systematic illegal boycott”.
The company formerly known as Twitter first submitted the trial Against the World Advertiser Federation and its Safety Initiative for the Global Alliance of Responsible Media in August 2024.
Shortly after, WFA Garm abandonedWriting that “recent allegations which unfortunately misinterpret its objective and its activities caused a distraction and considerably drained its resources and finances”. At the same time, the CEO of the organization would have said to the members That he would fight against the trial and “would demonstrate our full respect for the rules of competition in all our activities”.
X Addition of added advertisers including Twitch As defendants in the costume. Now, as initially Reported by Business InsiderA Modified complaint has further expanded the costume to include Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods and Shell.
The complaint alleges that WFA “organized a boycott of Twitter’s advertiser via Garm, in order to force Twitter to comply with the Garm brand safety standards to Garm’s satisfaction”. And he claims that these efforts have managed to harm Twitter / X, with “at least” 18 advertisers affiliated to Garm stopping their purchase of announcements on Twitter between November and December 2022, and other “substantially” advertisers reducing their expenses .
“The majority of X advertising revenues come from small and medium-sized companies today who are not Garm members or customers of Garm-Member advertising agencies,” said the complaint. “While the request for advertising on X decreased following the boycott, the remaining advertisers of the X price are also ready to pay.”
In fact, the trial claims that the prices of announcements on X “remain much lower than those invoiced by the competitors closest to X on the advertising market on social networks”, therefore “by abstaining from buying From advertising to X, boycotting advertisers make a precious opportunity to buy weak advertising inventory at prices on a platform with brand security that meets or exceeds industry standards. »»
The trial is not the only place where managers have offered a pessimistic assessment of X’s activities. The owner of the company Elon Musk would have told employees In January, “user growth stagnates, income is not impressive and we will barely break”.
