About two weeks later Microsoft appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) against the decision of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to block Microsoft’s $69 billion deal Activision Blizzardthe Call of Duty creator has been given the green light to take his case to the tribunal.
This is according to a report from the Reuters news agency. Activity has now been cleared to intervene in Microsoft’s appeal to the CAT, which hears appeals against CMA rulings. The case is expected to be heard next month.
The CAT makes a ruling on the merits of the CMA decision. In addition, the appeal is not an opportunity for Microsoft to file new remedies.
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The news follows a report that Microsoft’s president Brad Smithwho met with the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer for talks earlier this week, said the company wants to allay regulators’ concerns about the Activision takeover.
Microsoft has already signed 10-year deals with Nvidia, Nintendo, Ukrainian cloud company Boosteroid, Japan’s Ubitus, and Spain’s Nware to bring Activision’s games to their platforms. The deals are also a way of suggesting that the company is not trying to harm competition in the market.
It should be noted that a final decision on Microsoft’s appeal could take months.
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UK blocks deal
Britain’s antitrust regulator blocked the deal in April, saying it could hurt competition in the cloud gaming market, prompting a sharp backlash from both Microsoft and Actvision.
At a hearing in May, Microsoft’s lawyers accused the CMA of being a global “outlier” for blocking the Activision acquisition, which has been cleared by regulators including the European Union’s competition authority.
Notably, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also blocked the deal, and the decision is being challenged by Microsoft.
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