Giant company Microsoft is planning to purchase Activision Blizzard, the creator of a popular online game Call Of Duty. However, gamers are not happy with this deal. Recently, an article was published in Yahoo! Finance about the lawsuit due to the deal. Microsoft visited the U.S. court with a private customer lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that the company’s $69 billion bid to purchase Activision Blizzard Inc will create an unwillingness to extinguish competition in the gaming industry.
This complaint was filed in federal court in California after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a case with the administrative law judge to stop Microsoft from making the biggest acquisition in the gaming market. The private lawsuit also seeks the same reason to block Microsoft from purchasing Blizzard. The case was filed on the behalf of 10 gamers from New Jersey, California, and New Mexico.
The complaint alleged that this deal would give Microsoft far outside market power in the video game industry. The complaint also quotes that the deal may cause problems like the ability to foreclose rivals, reduce consumer choice, limit output, increase prices, and inbuilt competition. On the other hand, the representative of Microsoft defended the case with a statement “will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers. ” After the FTC sued, Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft stated, “We have confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present the case in court.”
Joseph Saveri, Plaintiff’s attorney said “As the video game industry continues to grow, it’s critical that we protect the mergers from monopolistic mergers that can harm the consumers in the long run.”
The private plaintiffs can go for antitrust claims in the U.S. court even if the related U.S. agency case is pending. The announcement of the takeover in January also faces antitrust scrutiny in the European Union. The Federal Trade Commission previously said it sued to stop the company Microsoft from owning control over the independent game studio. The agency stated that the merger would harm competition among the rival platforms from Sony Group Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd.
