The coalition of state attorneys general suing over the Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance merger has requested a trial date of April 2027.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading the coalition. In a statement to The Center Square, Bonta called the challenge to the “unlawful Warner Bros./Paramount merger” a clean-cut antitrust challenge through and through.
“It is about protecting the vibrancy of an industry, the pockets of consumers, and the quality of films and television programs that take center stage in many of our lives,” said Bonta.
Warner Bros. Discovery operates Warner Bros.’ California movie studios in Burbank, and Paramount Skydance owns Paramount Pictures in nearby Hollywood. Both companies own streaming services, and Paramount Skydance owns CBS. Both companies own other TV networks.
The lawsuit from Bonta et al against Paramount-Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. was announced July 13 and is in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
On July 20, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a temporary restraining order requested by the state attorneys general. The TRO pauses the deal while the court considers a preliminary injunction that would block the merger for the duration of the lawsuit. However, on July 29, Paramount Skydance said it would delay the merger until June 2027.
In addition to Bonta, who is a Democrat, the plaintiffs are Democratic attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.
“This challenge deserves careful and thorough review, and today my office and attorneys general across the country asked the court for a trial date next spring,” said Bonta in Friday’s statement to The Center Square. “We are eager to continue to make our case and look forward to a final determination of the schedule by the court.”
Writers Guild of America, the union representing TV and movie writers, is also suing over the merger. That lawsuit is also in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“With fewer competitors, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. entity would have both the incentive and the ability to lower costs by suppressing writers’ wages and reducing output,” the WGA complaint states. “Writers will be paid less and have fewer employment opportunities.”
When the WGA lawsuit was announced, the California Department of Justice, led by Bonta, told The Center Square in an email that it welcomes enforcement partners in fighting for fair competition and looks forward to litigating this alongside WGA.
Not everyone is a fan of the lawsuits. Michael Gates, a lawyer who is the Republican candidate for California attorney general, said Bonta is running for reelection and “jumping on this as an opportunity to make headlines” in an election year.
“He’s trying to appear as though he’s taking on Big Business, but what he’s totally missing is that the federal government has already evaluated this merger, and the federal government under federal antitrust laws deems this merger as proper and nothing violative of antitrust law,” Gates told The Center Square during a phone interview.
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice gave its blessing on June 12. The European Commission signed off on the merger on July 21.
It is for these reasons that Wayne Winegarden of the Pasadena, Calif.-based Pacific Research Institute thinks the merger is fine.
Winegarden also told The Center Square that Bonta’s lawsuit relies on an outdated view of the media industry, which Winegarden described as rapidly evolving.
“There are good reasons to expect the evolution will continue for years,” said Winegarden, PRI’s senior fellow in business and economics, in an email to The Center Square. “Both Paramount and Warner Bros are struggling to compete in this environment. The merger is an attempt to fix that problem for both companies.”
