California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 12 attorneys general in filing a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on July 13 to immediately block the $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. by Paramount Skydance Corporation. The motion seeks to stop the merger until the judicial process can evaluate the deal, which officials claim could lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television audiences.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that the merger violates Section 7 of the Clayton Act. The attorneys general allege that the merger would lessen competition in areas including wide release theatrical film distribution, anticipated top-grossing theatrical film distribution, and the licensing of basic cable television channels.
Attorney General Bonta stated that the unlawful merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount would harm movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and audiences in the U.S. He asserted that these industry titans must not merge until a court properly evaluates the claims and stated he would fight the merger.
The proposed merger is described as the largest in Hollywood history and would combine two of Hollywood's five major film distributors and two of the five major basic cable channel owners. If permitted, the combined entity would control nearly one-third of theatrical motion picture distribution and nearly one-third of basic cable programming in the U.S.
In filing the motion, Bonta is joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
The attorneys general asked Warner Bros. and Paramount not to close the merger until the judicial process has had a chance to fully evaluate it, but the companies did not agree to the request.
