From the lawyer
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Not expecting a lot of action this week, but maybe we'll get some news from the EC (this Thursday is the last day to formally offer remedies) and if we are lucky the responses to the PF could be published by the CMA.
THE LAST 10 DAYS
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March 1st: The EC extended the provisional deadline for a decision two weeks (April 25th).
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March 1st: The US Chamber of Commerce (a business organisation, not a government department) filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking correspondence between the FTC and other regulators.
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March 2nd: the EU will very likely approve the deal with behavioural remedies.
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March 8th: The CMA published the responses from the parties (MS and Sony) to the suggested remedies.
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March 10th: MS published a website explaining the benefits of bringing Call of Duty to 150 million more players.
NEXT KEY DATES:
- Early March 2023: response hearings with the CMA.
- Early March 2023: the cut-off point to offer remedies to the EC is now March 16th.
- Late March 2023: responses to the provisional findings from the CMA will be likely published.
- April 12th 2023: motion for a preliminary injunction on the gamers' lawsuit.
- April 18th 2023: second extension of the original outside date. If MS quits by that date they have to pay a termination fee of $2,500,000,000; if they don't, the outside date gets extended until July 18th 2023.
- April 25th 2023: final decision from the EC.
- April 26th 2023: final report and remedies from the CMA.
- April 28th 2023: decision from New Zealand.
- April - May 2023: decision from the SAMR in China.
- July 18th 2023: The end of the second extension and final outside date in the merger agreement. If MS quits by that date they have to pay a termination fee of $3,000,000,000; if they don't, they'll have to renegotiate the outside date with ABK.
- August 2nd 2023: beginning of the FTC in-house trial.
- Early 2024: decision from the FTC administrative law judge.
- Anything beyond that: unknown