LinkedIn reaches $6.6M settlement in ‘fake clicks’ class action

LinkedIn advertising class action settlement

• Who: LinkedIn has agreed to a $6.6 million settlement with U.S. advertisers.
• Why: The settlement was reached to end class action claims that LinkedIn knowingly over-reported ad clicks on its platform. 
• Where: The LinkedIn advertising class action settlement was filed in a California federal court.

LinkedIn has agreed to pay at least $6.6 million to businesses that bought ads on its platform to end claims it over-reported “clicks” on ads to make them look more successful than they were.

Plaintiffs TopDevz and Noirefy, two small online businesses, filed legal documents in support of preliminary approval of the LinkedIn settlement on July 25 in a California federal court. 

According to the legal filings, the $6.625 million settlement fund would be distributed among “all U.S. advertisers who purchased LinkedIn advertising” between 2015 and 2023, with any unclaimed money from the fund going to the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America. 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs are seeking $2.56 million in legal fees out of the settlement fund. 

Lawsuit alleged unfounded promises

TopDevz and Noirefy initially filed the class action complaint against LinkedIn in 2020, claiming the system measuring performance on LinkedIn ads inflated the numbers by counting views that didn’t happen and clicks from accounts that weren’t real. 

The plaintiffs alleged that the professional network relies on advertising to support the business, with the bulk of the ads coming from small businesses.

TopDevz reported using various types of LinkedIn ads to promote its business. The company said it was told by LinkedIn there was value in buying advertising space on the networking site and was promised “huge numbers” of “high-quality professional audiences.” 

The problem, according to the plaintiffs, is that there was no way to verify the promises made by LinkedIn. Marketers buying LinkedIn ads were forced to depend on metrics provided by the company.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn allegedly blocked advertisers and the public from seeing the data used to determine these numbers of clicks, impressions and views, instead offering opaque reports with bloated, inaccurate numbers, the plaintiffs alleged. 

This lack of transparency allowed LinkedIn to count metrics other advertising systems throw out, the class action lawsuit claimed. TopDevz said, as a result, metrics on its LinkedIn ads were based on fake accounts, misclicks and bot traffic.

Later in 2020, LinkedIn users filed a similar complaint, accusing the company of overcharging advertisers for LinkedIn ads and misrepresenting how reliable its advertising platform data is.

What do you think of this LinkedIn marketing settlement? Let us know in the comments. 

The plaintiffs are represented by J. Dominick Larry and Warren Postman of Keller Postman LLC, Antonio Romanucci and David Neiman of Romanucci & Blandin LLC, and Keith Custis of Custis Law PC.

The LinkedIn advertising class action lawsuit is Topdevz LLC, et al. v. Linkedin Corp., Case No. 5:20-cv-08324-SVK, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

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