Elon Musk has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an industry group that represents various global brands.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is leading the charge in this suit against GARM, as Musk has said that a conspiracy has forced X to lose billions of dollars from advertising.
Musk Announces New War
Musk has gone after advertisers who have decided to flee X after he bought the social media site in the past.
However, now the billionaire has kicked this battle up a notch, seemingly announcing “war” when discussing why X is suing GARM.
Musk Says He’s Tried Peace
In a post on X, Musk explained that he had tried peace for the last two years when many advertisers began to stop spending money on the site.
He wrote, “We tried peace for 2 years, now it is war.”
An Antitrust Suit
This antitrust suit was filed in a Texas federal court. The suit alleges that GARM colluded and convinced various brands around the world to limit or completely stop their advertising on X.
The suit also names specific GARM members, including Unilever, CVS Health, Orsted, and Mars.
A Conspiracy?
The lawsuit also brings up what X sees as a conspiracy to go against the company.
The lawsuit says, “These actions were all against the unilateral self-interest of the advertisers; they made economic sense only in furtherance of a conspiracy performed in the confidence that competing advertisers were doing the same.”
Costing X Billions of Dollars
This news comes as reporting has shown that X has struggled to deal with declining revenues, all of which began to occur since Musk bought the social media company back in 2022.
X’s CEO Lina Yaccarino also opened up about how the company has lost billions of dollars. However, Yaccarino stated that GARM is to blame for this.
X’s CEO Backs Suit
According to Yaccarino, GARM punished X for allowing certain viewpoints they didn’t agree with on the site.
She wrote on X, “To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott.”
A Huge Court Battle
This legal suit is no small thing for X. GARM reportedly represents brands that spend more than 90% of all global ad dollars.
X also receives a majority of its revenues from advertising. Thus, this suit could impact major brands and much of X’s own revenue.
Musk vs Advertisers
This suit is the latest installment in a war between Musk and advertisers. When many advertisers began to leave the site last year, Musk publicly attacked them.
So far, many of these brands reportedly haven’t returned to spending money on X, which appears to have greatly hurt the company’s revenues.
Why Did Advertisers Leave X?
Many major advertisers decided to leave X after Media Matters for America claimed that X allowed top brands’ advertising to appear near posts that had neo-Nazi or antisemitic ideas.
Brands quickly began to pull their ads from the site, as they didn’t want to be associated with these posts.
Musk Sued Media Matters
After this reporting greatly damaged X’s relationship with various advertisers, Musk blasted the companies that stopped advertising with the social media site.
However, the billionaire also sued Media Matters for defamation after they released this article.
GARM’s Other Issues
This isn’t the first time GARM has come under scrutiny. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives released a report just last month accusing the coalition of cutting out conservative platforms and news sites.
The report even said that GARM “likely violated federal antitrust laws.”
