UK watchdog denies it blocked Microsoft deal on orders of US regulator

An ad for the video game Call of Duty, created by Activision Blizzard, at the Gamescom fair in Cologne, Germany, in 2017. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

The UK’s competition watchdog has denied acting on the orders of the Federal Trade Commission in the US, as it defended its decision last month to block Microsoft’s $69bn (£55bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard.

Speaking to MPs on the business and trade select committee, Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said the body only acts on its own assessment of the validity of a merger.