Advertiser coalition 'discontinuing' activities two days after X antitrust suit: report

The World Federation of Advertisers is "discontinuing" activities of its Global Alliance for Responsible Media two days after Elon Musk's X sued the two entities and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever for antitrust violations, according to Business Insider, which said it saw the WFA email to members.

CEO Stephan Loerke said the Brussels-based WFA and GARM will fight the lawsuit and predicted it would "demonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all our activities," but that as a nonprofit GARM can't afford to keep going amid the litigation.

Video-sharing platform Rumble filed its own antitrust suit against WFA and members WPP and GroupM the same day as X. Business Insider said GARM only has two full-time staffers and already hired counsel to deal with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation.

GARM didn't immediately respond to a Just the News query Thursday afternoon.

Musk's company alleged the defendants orchestrated an illegal boycott against it and other firms, costing X "billions of dollars," CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote on X. 

She cited House Judiciary's report on GARM, which alleged that it falsely claimed it did not direct members to boycott X, then Twitter, after Musk's purchase. The committee requested documents related to "collusive activities" from more than 40 advertisers days before the X suit.

Musk forecast the lawsuit after a Judiciary hearing last month in which committee Democrats lumped conservative views with child pornography and terrorism to justify advertiser boycotts.

"Big win for the First Amendment. Big win for oversight," the Judiciary GOP wrote on X Thursday.

"No small group should be able to monopolize what gets monetized," Yaccarino wrote in a repost. "This is an important acknowledgement and a necessary step in the right direction. I am hopeful that it means ecosystem-wide reform is coming."