The US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) request to temporarily block Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila scheduled a two-day evidentiary hearing on the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction for June 22-23 in San Francisco. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard must submit legal arguments opposing a preliminary injunction by June 16; the FTC must reply on June 20.
According to the court order, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will prevent any of their officers, directors, domestic or foreign agents, divisions, subsidiaries, affiliates, partnerships, or joint ventures from closing or consummating, directly or indirectly, the proposed transaction or a substantially similar transaction.
So far, Microsoft had approval from the EU Commission and is preparing for a court hearing with UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA). CMA disapproved the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal last April.
FTC has been hard at work against gaming companies. In December 2022, Epic Games settled to pay two separate fines. A $275 million civil penalty for alleged violations of the COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). And another $245 million as refunds to consumers harmed by Epic’s allegedly deceptive user interface choices, which sum up to $520 million. FTC also claimed Meta has been trying to buy its way to the top rather than competing for it.
