The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has denied the CMA’s desire to hold off on their review of the merger of Microsoft and Activision deal until October. Instead the review will go through the courts this month.

The CMA filed a request to delay the review by claiming the attorneys of Microsoft and Actvision-Blizzard have had more time to prepare.

In their response, the CAT affirms that due to the “public interest” of whether or not the deal will be allowed, that the parties involved are entitled to a speedy trial.

(1) The CMA is quite right to emphasise the very considerable public interest in the proper disposal of Microsoft’s application. The CMA
must understand that otherwise merger decisions involve very considerable interference in the lawful business of undertakings. That is
why the process for considering whether the merger should be prohibited must be conducted quickly. That includes, we stress, any review of a decision prohibiting the merger. It is in principle wrong, and unfair, to have an expedited process for making a decision, and no expedited process for reviewing it. The Tribunal’s practice and guidance are clear in this regard.

(2) The CMA must have known from an early stage (from when Microsoft advised of its intention to challenge the decision) that the October 2023 hearing that it seeks was at the very outer limit of an expedited review process, and that – given the considerable public and private interests at stake – an earlier hearing was likely…

The UK’s Competition and Market Authority has been standing in the way of the Microsoft-Activision acquisition for months. At first the organization appeared to be approving of the deal but did an abrupt about-face citing the “cloud gaming” market as an area Microsoft could dominate as a result.