From Variety · Gene Maddaus · · 1m 10s
Paramount fights back on the states' merger suit
Paramount's first legal answer to the 12-state challenge lays out the defenses it plans to run at trial next March.
In brief
Paramount's first legal answer to the 12-state challenge lays out the defenses it plans to run at trial next March. Paramount's opening play is to question whether states can block a merger at all, but the law says they can sue over federal antitrust harms. Originally reported by Variety.
Paramount answers the states
Paramount's lawyers filed their formal response Friday to the antitrust suit aimed at the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
A merger worth blocking
Twelve states have sued to stop Paramount from absorbing Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing the combination harms competition.
March trial on the calendar
The filing sketches out the arguments and defenses Paramount may deploy when the case reaches trial next March.
The jurisdiction defense
Paramount's main gambit: the states have no authority over the merger, because that power sits with the Justice Department.
“which is vested in the U.S. Department of Justice”
Why that argument strains
States can bring claims alleging harm from conduct that violates federal antitrust law. Merger review is not a DOJ monopoly.
Confidence as strategy
Paramount is betting the case falls apart once a court examines it closely, a posture designed to hold as much as to win.
“collapse under scrutiny”
At a glance
Paramount's opening play is to question whether states can block a merger at all, but the law says they can sue over federal antitrust harms.
