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Counterattack from Microsoft: gold lawyer helps to overturn British CMA's ruling on Activision Blizzard acquisition

Shulou Source: shulou.com Published: 2023-11-24 16:37:04 10月03日 Update

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizens for hand-written delivery of previous leads! CTOnews.com May 7 news, April 26, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it blocked Microsoft's $69 billion (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 476.79 billion yuan) acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that it would have an impact on future competition in the cloud gaming market. Microsoft has made it clear that it will appeal.

According to the Telegraph, Microsoft has hired Daniel Beard, a top expert "specializing in fighting EU antitrust lawsuits," to try to overturn the CMA ruling. He allegedly represented Microsoft at the later stages of the CMA's final ruling.

Daniel Beard, who is affiliated with Monckton Chambers, a London-based law firm, is highly specialized in competition law and is widely regarded as one of the top lawyers in competition, EU, regulation and public law, according to public sources. He has overturned EU fines of more than millions of dollars against US companies several times in recent years.

Simply put, this person has successfully appealed on behalf of Apple against the EU's tax requirements of 13 billion euros (currently about 99.06 billion yuan), on behalf of Intel to overturn a fine of 1.1 billion euros (currently about 8.382 billion yuan) more than a decade ago, and on behalf of Sky and Tesco to overthrow the government's decision.

Sources said they believe Brussels will pass the deal, requiring only Microsoft to commit to certain commitments to make games such as Call of Duty available on other platforms. He expects the EU to make a decision within the next two weeks.

If Microsoft successfully appeals, the case could be sent back to CMA to reconsider its decision. If CAT refuses, Microsoft can take the case to the High Court Appeals Division.

Of course, Microsoft still has a lawsuit to deal with in the U.S., because the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in December that it would sue the company to block the deal. Previously, the industry generally believed that the FTC was expressing its position in form. If both Britain and the EU agreed, the FTC would naturally withdraw the lawsuit.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the company would support Microsoft's appeal, saying,"We are confident in this case because the facts are on our side: this deal is good for competition." Kotick said over-regulation would mean the company would reassess its expansion plans in the UK.