LinkedIn has agreed to pay $6.625 million to settle a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the social networking platform of inflating the number of views on video ads.
The preliminary settlement was filed in the San Jose, California federal court, but is now awaiting approval from US Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen before the payout is confirmed.
LinkedIn, which has denied any wrongdoing, has committed to employing an external auditor for two years to review its ad metrics.
LinkedIn accused of inflating video ad views
The lawsuit stems from a complaint by Sacramento, California-based TopDevz, a team of developers, designers, project managers and quality assurance testers, who claimed that LinkedIn exaggerated ad views by counting video plays on its app even when users scrolled past them.
The legal action comes not long after the Microsoft-owned platform confirmed it had corrected software bugs that resulted in more than 400,000 overcharges – a mistake that LinkedIn rectified by issuing credits to many affected advertisers.
The $6.625 million settlement covers US advertisers who bought ads on the platform between January 2015 and May 2023, who were subsequently overcharged to cover an exaggerated number of views.
LinkedIn parent company, Microsoft, confirmed a 17% increase in revenue for the three months that ended March 31. Total company revenue sat at $61.9 billion, with LinkedIn seeing a 10% increase in its revenue.
A LinkedIn spokesperson told TechRadar Pro in an email: "LinkedIn is pleased to have reached a settlement that underscores our commitment to the integrity of our ads products and providing a trusted platform for our members and customers."
Via Reuters
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