United States of America v. AT&T, Inc.
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
310 F. Supp. 3d 161 (2018)
Relevant factsFree
The government sought to block AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner, arguing control over Turner Network's popular programming would let AT&T extract higher fees from competing video distributors under threat of blackouts and hinder online competitors, but the merger agreement included arbitration provisions preventing blackouts, distributors had successfully operated without Turner content before, and comparable prior vertical mergers had not been shown to increase programming prices.
IssueFree
Whether enjoining a transaction under antitrust laws requires showing a sufficiently probable and imminent likelihood of substantially lessening competition.