ADVERT MANIPULATION: LinkedIn avoids planned lawsuit, coughs out $6.625m as settlement

A planned class action lawsuit against LinkedIn, accusing the social networking site of manipulating the number of views on its video advertisements, has been resolved for $6.625 million.

The settlement covers US advertisers from January 2015 until May 2023. LinkedIn will also appoint an external auditor for two years to analyze its advertising metrics.

According to the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary approval of the agreement in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, LinkedIn agrees to make “commercially reasonable efforts” to employ a “reputable third party” to audit its ad data.

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TopDevz, a Sacramento, California-based organization of developers, designers, project managers, and quality assurance testers, filed the complaint that resulted in the lawsuit.

The case began two weeks after LinkedIn reported in November 2020 that its engineers had resolved software bugs on the business-focused social media platform that might have resulted in more than 418,000 overcharges, most of which were less than $25.

LinkedIn said in a statement that the payment “underscores our commitment to the integrity of our ads products and providing a trusted platform for our members and customers.”

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