Antitrust

That 28-day pause could go a lot longer, now that US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved a deal saying that Paramount Skydance won’t close its transaction until June 1st, 2027, or at least until after legal claims of two lawsuits (one filed by a group of state AGs, and the other by the WGA) are resolved.

President Donald Trump threatened a “substantial” tariff on Europe for what he claimed were “discriminatory” fines against US tech companies over alleged competition violations, most recently involving Google. While Trump claimed Europe’s high fines started during the Biden administration, some early fines were also imposed during Trump’s first term.

US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a decision Thursday extending her temporary restraining order to a total of 28 days, report The Wrap and Variety. The mega media merger is paused for now due to lawsuits by a group of state AGs and the Writers’ Guild of America, as the judge plans to “hear the two motions for preliminary injunction on the same schedule” and has scheduled a hearing for August 3rd.

While Paramount’s $110 billion WBD merger is suddenly on hold in the US, in Europe, the European Commission is ready to allow it after Paramount agreed to concessions including giving up its stake in United International Pictures within 13 months of the deal closing.

The former Federal Trade Commission chair under Biden will help lead the city’s Economic Development Corporation, alongside newly announced president Anthony Shorris, who recently worked as a partner at McKinsey.

Following its $99 million class action agreement earlier this year, the company struck another settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and several states that sued it on antitrust grounds. Similar to the earlier agreement, the proposed settlement has a ten-year term requiring it to make repair resources available to farmers.

The Roku Netflix Player was originally a streaming box that then-Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided not to build.

The company asked the judge to rule that, as a matter of law, it could not be found an illegal monopolist, despite the jury issuing a verdict against it. If that fails, it’s asked the court to grant it a new trial altogether.

We already know what this hearing is about: three weeks ago, Judge Donato told Epic and Google they’d answer six specific pointed questions. The big one: would Google’s “Registered App Stores” really be better at curbing Google’s monopoly? Or should he keep forcing Google to carry rival stores inside its own?

“There are no ongoing settlement discussions,” according to an attorney for the states that kept litigating their winning antitrust case against Live Nation-Ticketmaster after the Justice Department settled. Those states remain focused on the upcoming remedies phase, and they’ll layout their initial demands in a couple weeks.

Fresh off the loss of its antitrust trial, the company settled with the DC attorney general over claims it “hid the true price of tickets” before checkout. The AG says Ticketmaster has since changed the practice. The settlement is similar to one between StubHub and the Federal Trade Commission.

Attorneys who led trial teams against Live Nation, Google, and Apple are among the recent departures, following the DOJ’s Live Nation settlement, Bloomberg and Mlex report. David Dahlquist, who led the DOJ teams against Live Nation and for Google search remedies, announced he’d given notice at a Google hearing Wednesday.

The judge just scheduled a 3 PM hearing ordering “principal decisionmakers” for the states and Live Nation to attend. I expect we’ll hear about the status of their settlement talks, and whether at least some portion of the 27 states plus DC pushing ahead will go back to trial Monday.

I’ve been updating it for hours with bits from court documents, blog posts, email fact-checks, even a quick interview with Google Android boss Sameer Samat and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. I’m about done, but I still need to parse the new Games Level Up Program and Apps Experience Program...

“The parties expect to submit a revised proposal to the Court by March 4, 2026.” That’s today.