The US FTC is again trying to stop Microsoft’s already terminated deal with Activision By Reuters.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Microsoft logo is seen on a smartphone placed above the Activision Blizzard logo shown in this picture taken on January 18, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. antitrust enforcers argued on Wednesday that a federal judge erred in ruling that Microsoft (NASDAQ:)’s $69 billion deal to acquire ‘Call of Duty’ maker Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:) was legal. I plan to do it. There have been recent attempts to stop trading under competition law.

Microsoft completed this transaction, which was originally proposed as the largest acquisition in the history of the gaming industry in January 2022, on October 13 this year after receiving approval from British regulators.

But the Federal Trade Commission found in California that a three-judge appeals court ruled that lower court judges were holding the agency to too high a standard, effectively requiring it to prove that the deal was anticompetitive if that standard was merely a standard. It is expected that he will say that he did. The deal raises serious competitive concerns.

The FTC is facing an uphill battle, having lost in a lower court and having the EU and UK sign off on the agreement.

The legal fight is part of a broader push by the Biden administration to fight mergers and price hikes that affect consumers on everything from pharmaceuticals to airline tickets.

The FTC is also expected to argue that the judge erred in relying on Microsoft’s game distribution agreements with rivals as evidence that the merger would not harm competition.

The FTC filed the lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal in December 2022, alleging that Microsoft would use Activision’s popular games to stifle competition for its Xbox consoles and take control of its fast-growing subscription and cloud gaming business. But a California federal judge ruled in July that the lawsuit could not be brought.

Microsoft is expected to argue that the FTC failed to prove that the judge was wrong in his ruling. It will also argue that the agency failed to prove that Microsoft had an incentive to withhold “Call of Duty” from competing gaming platforms.

The judging panel includes Daniel Collins and Daniel Forrest, who were nominated by former President Donald Trump, and Jennifer Sung, who was nominated by President Joe Biden.