Following its blocking of the Microsoft Activision deal back in April, the CMA will soon have to fight its case against Xbox in a UK court.
Xbox ’s battle to get its $68.7 billion planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard approved rages on. It took an unexpected turn in late April when UK regulatory body the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected the Microsoft Activision deal on the grounds that Microsoft would have too much dominance in the cloud gaming space. This wasn’t enough to dissuade the tech giant from challenging the CMA’s decision, however, which we now know will occur as early as next month.
Microsoft’s appeal is set to be reviewed by the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) at the end of July, in which it must try and convince CAT that the CMA was misunderstood in its decision. The details were expressed as part of a case management conference (as noted by an official CAT listing ) this week where judge Marcus Smith scheduled dates for the hearing. As per VGC, Smith said it “will take place in the fortnight commencing July 24, so the weeks commencing the 24th and 31st of July”.
