On Thursday, Elon Musk lost his lawsuit alleging that he violated antitrust law by colluding with advertisers on an ad boycott after he took over Twitter, disbanded content moderation teams and disbanded the Trust and Safety Council.
In her opinion, U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle wrote that the lawsuit was dismissed because Musk failed to state a claim. They argued that advertisers had acted against their best interests by avoiding advertising on their platform, now called X, and did not present facts showing that consumers had been harmed. Without harm to the consumer, there can be no antitrust violation, the judge wrote, ruling the advertising boycott perfectly legal.
Boyle said, “The nature of the alleged conspiracy does not state the antitrust claim, and the Court has no objection to dismissing it with prejudice.” At one point, he emphasized, “The question behind competition injury is whether consumers—not competitors—have been harmed.”
For Musk, the loss is likely significant. He had argued that advertisers should be “criminally prosecuted” after aides in Congress released a report claiming they were conspiring to undercut Twitter’s revenue with the alleged goal of censoring conservative voices.
The lawsuit was also part of a larger “thermonuclear” legal battle that Musk started when he sued America’s Media Matters for their reporting, which he claimed had inspired the boycott. That lawsuit is still ongoing, but may be put on hold after a judge ruled that there was no illegal boycott.
At the time of this writing, Musk has not commented on the decision, and X has not responded to Ars’ request for comment.
However, given Musk’s heated public statements regarding the lawsuit, it seems likely that X will appeal.
<a href