U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit accusing Microsoft of overcharging users

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U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit accusing Microsoft of overcharging users

A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Microsoft Corp. of inflating the number of people watching video ads so that the networking platform could overcharge hundreds of thousands of advertisers.

In a decision on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen said that the plaintiffs failed to show their legal remedies were inadequate before suing under two California laws that offered only equitable relief, such as restitution.

Advertisers accused LinkedIn of inflating its metrics by counting video ads views from users' LinkedIn apps, even when videos played off-screen because users scrolled past them.

The lawsuit began after LinkedIn said in November 2020 that it was https: business.linkedin. More than 418,000 overcharges were caused by software bugs that were fixed by the company's engineers, most of which were under $25. It provided credits to virtually all affected advertisers, according to LinkedIn.

Judge van Keulen had dismissed some of the advertisers' claims in August, while letting others proceed https: www.reuters. Monday's dismissal was with prejudice, so the lawsuit led by advertisers TopDevz Inc of Sacramento, California, and Noirefy Inc of Chicago can't be brought again. LinkedIn is based in Sunnyvale, California.

Lawyers for advertisers did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. LinkedIn and its lawyers didn't respond immediately to similar requests.

The case is No. : LinkedIn Advertising Metrics Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.