LinkedIn has agreed to pay $6.625 million to settle a proposed class action accusing the Microsoft unit of overcharging advertisers by inflating the number of views on video ads on its platform. The preliminary settlement was filed late Thursday in San Jose, California federal court and requires approval by U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen.
Although LinkedIn denied any wrongdoing, it also agreed to use reasonable efforts for two years to hire an outside auditor to review its ad metrics. Advertisers, led by TopDevz of Sacramento, California, and Noirefy of Chicago, accused LinkedIn of inflating ad metrics by counting video ad “views” from users’ LinkedIn apps, even when videos played only off-screen as users scrolled past them.
The lawsuit began two weeks after LinkedIn disclosed in November 2020 that its engineers had fixed software bugs that may have led to more than 418,000 overcharges, most under $25. LinkedIn provided credits to nearly all affected advertisers.
Thursday’s settlement covers U.S. advertisers who bought ads on LinkedIn between January 2015 and May 2023. Neither LinkedIn nor Microsoft immediately responded to requests for comment on Friday. LinkedIn is based in Sunnyvale, California, and Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington.
Judge van Keulen had initially dismissed the lawsuit in December 2021. Advertisers appealed but paused the appeal to mediate the dispute. The advertisers’ lawyers may seek up to $1,656,250, or 25% of the settlement amount, for legal fees.
The case is In re LinkedIn Advertising Metrics Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-08324.
