As EU Clears Microsoft-Activision Deal, AAI’s Diana Moss Comments on Divergence in Global Antitrust Enforcement in Law360
In a Law360 article published on May 16, 2023, EU’s Microsoft-Activision OK Raises Question: Fix Or Fight?, AAI President Diana Moss noted that the decision highlighted the differences in enforcement approaches between the EU, the US, and the UK. From the article:
“The MS-Activision deal frames up a major but expected difference between global enforcement approaches in a ‘pro-enforcement’ era. That is, what is the most effective remedy for an anticompetitive merger — to move to enjoin it or to settle it with a remedy?” Diana L. Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute and a critic of the deal, said in an email.
The EC’s acceptance of Microsoft’s 10-year licensing conditions signals a willingness to accept a remedy as the most effective way to restore competition lost by the merger. The CMA and the FTC think differently (at least as of now), i.e., fully restoring competition requires blocking the deal altogether,” the American Antitrust Institute’s Moss said. “Any single jurisdictional ‘veto’ for the merger is sure to affect the outcome for all.”