Sarah Cardell, the head of CM extensionthe British antitrust body, said it had met 26 times with the ftc extensionthe American antitrust body, to talk about the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. He did so in a document explaining the CMA’s position on allegations of collusion with the FTC for the decision to block the acquisition, for which a public hearing had previously been held.
It should be emphasized that this is a practice that the most important antitrust agencies practically always follow in the face of large-scale cases such as this one. In the same period, the CMA also had meetings with the European Commission, the number of which has not, however, been disclosed, probably because it is not the subject of accusations (the EC has given the green light to the acquisition).
Cardell: “Between the start of Phase 2 on September 15, 2022 and the release of its final report on April 26, 2023, the CMA had approximately 26 meetings (including calls and virtual meetings) and exchanged (sent and received) approximately 74 emails with the FTC (including administrative emails to arrange calls) regarding this case. The investigation is still ongoing and we will update the fee as soon as the process is complete; but we don’t expect the final numbers to differ from what we have introduced.”
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