Grapevine

Musk declares ‘war’ on advertisers as X sues ad alliance, companies

Brands had been wary of rapid changes initiated on X under Elon Musk’s ownership.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a global advertising alliance and several major companies, including Mars and CVS Health, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring to boycott the site and causing it to lose revenue.

X filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever and Danish renewable energy company Orsted, in addition to Mars and CVS Health.

The lawsuit said (PDF) advertisers, acting through a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media, collectively withheld “billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, previously known as Twitter.

It said they acted against their economic self-interest in a conspiracy against the platform that violated United States antitrust law.