Elon Musk’s X announced Friday that it has reached a settlement with Unilever in the social media firm’s sweeping federal antitrust lawsuit against a left-leaning advertising cartel and several companies accused of orchestrating an ad boycott.
Filed in Texas federal court in August, the antitrust suit accused the left-wing Global Alliance for Responsible Media — a now-defunct nonprofit arm of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) — of illegally colluding with Unilever and some corporate advertisers to boycotted. X for alleged failure to meet brand safety standards.
A spokesman for X said the firm’s claims against Unilever had been “resolved” and it was no longer a defendant in the suit. Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Hellman’s and other consumer goods firms, has plans for its brands to resume advertising on X, according to the spokesman.
“X is delighted to have reached an agreement with Unilever and to continue our partnership with them on the platform,” X said in a statement. “Today’s news is the first part of an ecosystem-wide solution, and we look forward to more solutions across the industry.”
The suit originally named Unilever as defendants along with GARM, its parent firm WFA, CVS Health, Mars and Orsted.
According to the lawsuit, the boycott cost X “billions of dollars in advertising revenue.”
X is “continuing to pursue our antitrust claims against other defendants,” the spokesman added.
Further details on the Unilever settlement were not immediately available.
“Unilever has reached an agreement with X, which has committed to meet our accountability standards to ensure the safety and performance of our brands on the platform,” a Unilever spokesperson said in a statement. “We cannot comment further on the terms of the agreement.”
GARM first came under public scrutiny in July after the release of a critical report by the House Judiciary Committee.
GARM and its members were accused of coordinating an effort to suppress free speech on the Internet and limit advertising in a host of media outlets, including The Post.
The WFA shut down its GARM initiative in August, citing its status as a nonprofit with limited resources and the costs of mounting a legal defense against Musk.
X is seeking treble compensatory damages and injunctive relief against the defendants.
The WFA’s membership includes many of the world’s largest companies, including Disney, Coca-Cola and Adidas, which collectively control 90% of global marketing spend, according to its website.
Its leadership has denied any wrongdoing.
In an August. 13 interview with The Post, X CEO Linda Yaccarino described the lawsuit as a key step toward fixing what she described as a “broken” ecosystem in digital advertising.
“We were victimized by a small group of people pushing their authority or their ability to monopolize what money is made,” Yaccarino said. “GARM was just a symptom, but [finding] the root cause of the entire ecosystem being broken, that’s what the lawsuit is about.”
The report by the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee detailed alleged efforts by GARM and its left-wing executive Robert Rakowitz to choke off the flow of advertising dollars to a variety of outlets, including the Daily Wire, Fox News, the podcast of comedian Joe Rogan “The Joe Rogan Experience” and others, who were accused of spreading misinformation.
In an email detailed in the report, Rakowitz appeared to boast that X was “80% below revenue projections” after GARM targeted Musk over brand safety issues.
Rakowitz said the email was intended as a “self-deprecating joke.”
The House committee’s investigation focused on whether GARM, WFA and its members violated Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which governs unlawful restraint of trade.
The committee also sent letters to more than 40 companies to provide information and preserve documents related to its dealings with GARM.
Adidas, American Express, Bayer, BP, Carhartt, Chanel, CVS and General Motors were among the companies that received letters.
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