Canada’s regulator also shared its stance on Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard during a hearing in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s FTC v. Microsoft case. According to The Verge, the country’s competition bureau believes the deal could harm competition in the game console and multi-game subscription space.
The regulator wrote to Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who oversaw the hearing, to correct “factual inaccuracies” in some of the documents Microsoft used to support its position. The judge will rule on whether the FTC was granted a temporary trading injunction.
According to the bureau, Microsoft asserted that “all regulators around the world that have reviewed the deal, with the exception of the FTC,” do not believe that Microsoft will monopolize Call of Duty on its ecosystem.
Xbox also claims that “all but one foreign regulator” has accepted its solution to potential problems with cloud gaming. This refers to the situation where the UK’s Competition Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the deal due to concerns in this area.
In a letter to the judge, the Canadian regulator said it had notified Microsoft and Activision Blizzard that it believed that “the proposed merger is likely to result in substantial disruption of competition in console and multi-game subscription services (as well as cloud gaming).” impede and/or reduce.”
However, this is not the final ruling from the country.
Microsoft then responded to Canada’s Competition Bureau, making it clear that the window within which the regulator could have blocked the deal had ended.
Rebecca Dougherty, a Microsoft exasperator, said they were merely notified that Canadian regulators would continue to monitor the deal “after the formal waiting period for the prohibition transaction to complete has expired.”
She concluded: “We will continue to work with regulators around the world to resolve any remaining issues.”
