{"id":1236766853,"date":"2026-06-04T10:05:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/variety.com\/?p=1236766853"},"modified":"2026-06-04T10:42:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:42:05","slug":"paramount-antitrust-lawsuit-block-warner-bros-deal-dismiss-reply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/paramount-antitrust-lawsuit-block-warner-bros-deal-dismiss-reply-1236766853\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Wants Lawsuit Seeking to Block Warner Bros. Deal Tossed: ‘Clumsy Attempt to Politicize Antitrust Litigation’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tIn April, five streaming subscribers filed a federal lawsuit<\/a> seeking to block Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion deal to swallow up Warner Bros. Discovery on antitrust grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tParamount on Thursday (June 3) filed a motion with the court seeking to have the case dismissed, arguing that the plaintiffs\u2019 allegations that the merger violates antitrust laws “do not have any factual support.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t“This case concerns the future of the entertainment industry and a misguided attempt by Plaintiffs to politicize antitrust law,” Paramount said in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland. “The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery presents an opportunity to revitalize Hollywood and the industry at large by creating greater competition that benefits consumers, theaters, and workers alike.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t“This clumsy attempt to politicize antitrust litigation, untethered to any established antitrust principles or law, has no place in this courthouse and must be rejected,” the company’s filing said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn the lawsuit<\/a>, the plaintiffs \u2014 three current Paramount+ subscribers and two prospective subscribers \u2014 allege that they face increased prices and reduced viewing options as a result of the Warner Bros. transaction. The suit not only seeks an injunction blocking the Paramount-WBD deal but also seeks to force the break up of Skydance Media’s merger with Paramount Global, a deal that closed in August 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn addition, the five plaintiffs assert they are owed damages as consumers of news and as regular moviegoers. The lawsuit alleges that David Ellison’s Skydance curried favor with the Trump administration in order to win approval of the Paramount deal, arguing that it has agreed to \u201calign CBS News\u2019s editorial posture\u201d with the White House, and thereby \u201creduced the credibility, editorial independence, and investigative vigor of its reporting.\u201d The suit also alleges that the plaintiffs will not have as many options for seeing movies in theaters if the Warner Bros. deal goes through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cThis merger is about creating a stronger competitor in a rapidly evolving media landscape,\u201d Jeffrey Kessler, co-executive chairman of law firm Winston Taylor, the noted antitrust lawyer who is lead counsel representing Paramount in the matter, said in a statement. \u201cThe plaintiffs have offered no evidence that the transaction will harm competition, while the record shows it will increase investment, expand content offerings and strengthen Paramount\u2019s ability to compete against the industry\u2019s largest players. Antitrust law is intended to promote competition, and this merger does exactly that. Plaintiffs\u2019 complaint, which is untethered from any established antitrust principles or law, must be rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn a statement provided to Variety<\/em>, a Paramount rep said: “As our response today makes clear, plaintiffs\u2019 lawsuit is meritless from top to bottom. The proposed Paramount-WBD transaction raises no plausible antitrust concerns. At a time when the media industry faces unprecedented competitive pressure from dominant big tech companies, this combination will enable Paramount-WBD to better compete, invest, innovate and deliver premium content to audiences worldwide.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe Paramount spokesman’s statement continued, “Opposing this deal means opposing greater consumer choice, stronger theatrical exhibition and expanded opportunities for creators and workers. That is not what antitrust law is meant to achieve. This politically motivated lawsuit seeks to block a transaction that will increase investment, expand output and strengthen competition. We will continue to vigorously fight this misguided challenge and any attempt to derail a deal that benefits consumers, creators, and the industry as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThere’s been considerable backlash in the industry to the Paramount-WBD deal: To date, more than 5,500 filmmakers, actors and other Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter opposing the deal<\/a>, arguing that it would eliminate jobs, raise prices and reduce competition. House Democrats have urged<\/a> California Attorney General Rob Bonta to \u201cclosely scrutinize\u201d the deal, and Bonta has indicated his office is mulling legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tMakan Delrahim, chief legal counsel of Paramount Skydance, asserted in an interview<\/a> published by the Los Angeles Times this week that “There\u2019s a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign. Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction really because of their own antisemitic views.” Delrahim has not identified which opponents of the Paramount-WBD merger allegedly hold \u201cantisemitic views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn its June 3 filing, Paramount argues that if the court granted an injunction blocking the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, that would “cause great harm” to Paramount and that “delaying or blocking the merger would harm competition rather than help it, and it would impose significant economic costs on Paramount.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tAccording to Paramount, the primary reason for the WBD merger is to gain scale to allow Paramount\u2019s combined streaming service to compete more effectively with leading streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ — a point Delrahim also made in a May 7 letter to California AG Bonta<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t“Netflix and other scaled tech platforms stand to benefit from a weaker Paramount and Warner Bros., but consumers, theater owners and talent will suffer,” Paramount says in its filing. “Whatever upside Plaintiffs might see in such an outcome, it is not a procompetitive one.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe company said that “Competing against highly scaled streaming platforms also requires significant investment in new and exciting content. Indeed, following the merger of Paramount and Skydance, the combined company has nearly doubled its theatrical film output, and Paramount has committed to releasing 30 feature films in theaters annually following the Warner Bros. transaction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tA hearing in the case is currently scheduled for July 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIn April, Paramount disclosed in an FCC filing that the merged Paramount-WBD would be 49.5% owned by foreign investors<\/a>, with about 38.5% of the equity in the new company owned by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi<\/a>. The three Middle Eastern countries had pledged a total of $24 billion toward Paramount\u2019s Warner Bros. bid<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April, five streaming subscribers filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion deal to swallow up Warner Bros. Discovery on antitrust grounds. Paramount on Thursday (June 3) filed a motion with the court seeking to have the case dismissed, arguing that the plaintiffs\u2019 allegations that the merger violates antitrust laws “do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48100666,"featured_media":1236666685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"authors":[],"contributors":[],"styled_by":[],"_image_credit":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","pmc_selected_wwd_video_media":"","pmc_top_video_source":"","pmc_top_video_duration":"","wwd_top_video_source":"","wwd_top_video_duration":"","pmc_selected_featured_media":"","pmc_selected_video_media":"","pmc_selected_variety_video_media":"","variety_top_video_source":"","variety_top_video_duration":"","pmc_featured_media_has_alt_text":true,"_pmc_featured_animated_media_id":0,"_pmc_featured_video_override_data":"","_pmc_featured_video_override_url":"","_pmc_featured_video_response_data":"","pmc-gallery-linked-gallery":{},"pmc_list_item_description":"","primary_variety_vip_category":"","primary_variety_vip_tag":"","primary_category":"","primary_vertical":"462","_mt_pmc_exclude_from_seo":"","_pmc_opengraph_title":"","_pmc_opengraph_description":"","categories":0,"subcategories":0,"thr_post_headlines":"","_variety-sub-heading":"","pmc-imdb-id":"","pmc-review-type":"","pmc-review-rating":"","pmc-review-rating-out-of":"","pmc-review-snippet":"","pmc-review-title":"","pmc-review-canonical-link":"","pmc-theatrical-release-date":0,"pmc-director":"","pmc-review-image_attachment_id":0,"variety-review-origin":"","variety-secondary-credit":"","variety-review-mpaa-rating":"","variety-review-running-time":"","variety-primary-credit":"","variety-primary-cast":"","variety-secondary-cast":"","variety-music-by":"","variety_vip_takeaways":[],"mt_seo_title":"Paramount Wants Lawsuit Seeking to Block Warner Bros. 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