The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) isn’t giving up its legal fight against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As you’re likely to remember, the US regulator tried to obtain a preliminary injunction to prevent Microsoft’s deal from being completed but failed when Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Microsoft on July 11th.
Shortly after that happened, the FTC was essentially forced by its own Commission
Rules of Practice to stay the internal proceedings before the Administrative Law Judge, which were originally scheduled to begin on August 2nd following the regulator’s decision to sue to block the acquisition last December.
However, the FTC has now ordered the internal proceedings to resume, effectively reviving its lawsuit. The evidentiary hearing will now commence twenty-one days after the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issues its opinion regarding the appeal of
the district court’s decision on the requested preliminary injunction.
It is a slightly surprising decision, considering that the Federal Trade Commission now effectively stands alone following the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisional approval of the restructured Microsoft deal (chiefly due to the divestiture of Activision cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft). Everywhere else, the deal has already been approved.
Still, under Lina Khan’s tenure, the FTC has attempted to fight even unwinnable battles. In fact, they have lost every one of them so far.
Just yesterday, they issued a massive lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that ‘the online retail and technology company is a monopolist that uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to illegally maintain its monopoly power’.
As for the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal, the FTC won’t be able to stop its closure, but it can continue its internal hearing and potentially seek to unwind the deal afterward.
