{
  "id": 16938676,
  "title": "Federal U.S. judge tosses $1 billion defamation lawsuit against Elsevier",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/28/federal-u-s-judge-tosses-1-billion-defamation-lawsuit-against-elsevier",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-28T15:42:59.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Retraction Watch",
    "slug": "retraction-watch",
    "url": "https://retractionwatch.com/2026/10/28/global-plasma-solutions-gps-elsevier-lawsuit-defamation-ruling/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A district judge has dismissed a $1 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Global Plasma Solutions (GPS) against Elsevier. GPS had claimed that Elsevier published a study about their needlepoint bipolar ionization technology that omitted data and made misleading conclusions, leading to significant financial losses. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, alleged that Elsevier knew the paper \"failed peer review\" but still published it. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Bell ruled that there was insufficient evidence for a jury to find that Elsevier acted with malice, as required for a defamation claim. The case had spanned over four and a half years and included over 400 docket entries.",
  "summary": "A district judge has ended a $1 billion defamation case against Elsevier over a study about air purification technology after concluding the plaintiff’s evidence was too weak to take to trial. Global Plasma Solutions, which makes air quality products, sued Elsevier in 2022 after the publisher declined to retract a paper in Building and Environment … Continue reading Federal U.S. judge tosses $1…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}