Gamers finally got over the MS-Activision case

Another potential obstacle to the completion of the $69 billion takeover deal concluded between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard in January of last year has been removed, as the competent court ruled last Friday that the motion submitted by a group of American gamers is ineligible for a second trial.

The first class action filed in the case was filed last December in the California Federal Court by ten individuals, two weeks after the US competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, initiated legal proceedings against the acquisition under its own jurisdiction.

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In connection with the mowing down of the first petition, the judge drew attention to the fact that the petitioners failed to adequately support the claims in the petition, that the takeover leads, among other things, to increasing prices, decreasing innovation and a narrowing of the selection.

However, in March, the court gave the group the opportunity to expand their arguments and evidence with a more detailed submission, but according to Friday’s decision, they failed to convince the judge even on the second attempt that the frigy would cause any damage to the segment and thus indirectly to the players.

In the time between the two court decisions, the competition authorities involved in the authorization procedure of the transaction did not remain inactive, so the British CMA blocked the acquisition in the second half of April, and the competition law body of the European Union passed a decision contrary to the British position in mid-May.