Microsoft's LinkedIn resolves the advertisers' complaint over alleged overcharges

LinkedIn has agreed to pay $6.625 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit that alleges Microsoft (MSFT.O) inflated views of video ads on its platform to overcharge advertisers. The tentative settlement was filed Thursday night in federal court in San Jose, California, and must be approved by U.S. District Judge Susan Van Keulen in San Jose, California. LinkedIn has denied any wrongdoing and has also agreed to use reasonable efforts over two years to hire an outside auditor to review its advertising metrics. The advertisers, led by TopDevz of Sacramento, California, and Noirefy of Chicago, accused LinkedIn of inflating its ad statistics by counting "views" of video ads from users' LinkedIn apps, even when the videos are not served off-screen because the user is hovering over them.

The trial began two weeks after LinkedIn revealed in November 2020 that its engineers were fixing a software bug on the business-centric social media platform that may have led to more than 418,000 overages, most of them for less than $25. Opens in a new tab. The advertisers, led by TopDevz of Sacramento, California, and Noirefy of Chicago, accused LinkedIn of inflating its ad statistics by counting "views" of video ads from users' LinkedIn apps, even when the videos are not served off-screen because the user is hovering over them. The lawsuit comes two weeks after LinkedIn said in November 2020 that its engineers had fixed a software bug on the business-centric social media platform that may have led to more than 418,000 overpayments, most of them for less than $25.