On Thursday, Elon Musk lost his lawsuit alleging that advertisers violated antitrust law by collusion in an advertising boycott after he took over Twitter, gutted content moderation teams, and dissolved the Trust and Security Council.
in it opinionU.S. District Judge Jane Boyle wrote that the lawsuit was dismissed because Musk did not file a claim. Their arguments that advertisers acted against their own interests by avoiding advertising on their platform, now called X, did not allege facts showing that consumers were harmed. Without harm to the consumer, there can be no antitrust violation, the judge wrote, considering that the advertising boycott is perfectly legal.
“The very nature of the alleged conspiracy does not establish an antitrust claim, and therefore the Court has no qualms about dismissing the case with prejudice,” Boyle said. At one point, he emphasized, “the question underlying antitrust harm is whether consumers, not competitors, have been harmed.”
For Musk, the loss is likely to be significant. He had argued that advertisers should be “criminally prosecuted” after allies in Congress released a report claiming they were conspiring to reduce Twitter’s revenue with the alleged goal of censoring conservative voices.
The lawsuit was also part of a A broader “thermonuclear” legal fight which Musk started when he sued Media Matters for America over its reporting that he claims sparked the boycott. That lawsuit remains ongoing, but may be hindered by the judge’s ruling that there was no illegal boycott.
As of this writing, Musk has not commented on the ruling and X did not respond to Ars’ request for comment.
However, it seems likely, given Musk’s heated public statements about the litigation, that X will appeal.
