The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 gives Americans the right to sue companies for anticompetitive behavior, a fact that 10 self-described gamers are using to take Microsoft to court, aiming to stop the ‘acquisition of Activision by the company.
As Bloomberg Law reports, the complaint, filed today and obtained by Kotaku, claims that the plaintiffs, or “gamers,” as they are described, are concerned that “the [Microsoft and Activision] the merger may substantially reduce competition or tend to create a monopoly; Such a merger, according to the complaint, would specifically violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which states that acquisitions that lessen competition are prohibited by US antitrust law. Not only does the complaint cite the scale and scope of the Activision-Microsoft merger as problematic, but also that this latest proposed merger follows a number of other Microsoft acquisitions, from its 2014 purchase of Mojang to its acquisition of Rare in 2002.
Thoroughly listing console, PC and AAA games, as well as subscription services as “Relevant Product Markets,” the lawsuit draws attention to how many big franchises will fall under Microsoft’s corporate umbrella if the merger goes through . Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Doom, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo and The Elder Scrolls are just some of the examples cited. He maintains that Microsoft and Activision currently compete directly through these titles and services such as Battle.net, the Microsoft Store and Game Pass. The merger would break this competitive dynamic.
Should the merger go through, the lawsuit states, Microsoft would have “outsized market power and the ability to foreclose key inputs from rivals and further harm competition.” The lawsuit cites competition both as it pertains to consumer sales, as well as industry competition to “hire and retain talent within the skilled video game workforce,” which would be “reduced” by the merger.
Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
The proposed Microsoft / Activision merger has been a lightning rod for controversy since its initial announcement. Perhaps most troubling for Microsoft is the recently filed lawsuit from the FTC. The feds allege that if such a merger were to happen, it would seriously harm competition in the video game industry, citing Microsoft’s past behavior of prioritizing Xbox and Windows PCs as platforms for its games. Microsoft disagrees, stating that the Activision acquisition would “bring Call of Duty to more players and more platforms than ever before.”
Speaking of Call of Duty, in response to criticism of its planned merger with Activision, Microsoft has pledged to continue offering Call of Duty on other platforms for at least 10 years. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has labeled Sony’s criticism of the acquisition as an attempt to “protect its dominant position in the console” and that it is looking to grow by “making Xbox smaller.”