{"id":953067,"date":"2026-07-23T02:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953067\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T02:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T02:08:15","slug":"paramount-seeks-three-day-hearing-as-judge-weighs-preliminary-injunction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953067\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Seeks Three-Day Hearing As Judge Weighs Preliminary Injunction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tParamount<\/a> is proposing that a federal judge hold a three-day evidentiary hearing later in August as she weighs whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would halt its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> as legal proceedings play out.<\/p>\n

\n\tU.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin issued a temporary restraining order on Monday, halting the transaction for two weeks, while she set a hearing for Aug. 3 on a lengthier preliminary injunction. The order was issued in response to an antitrust<\/a> lawsuit brought by California and 11 other states last week. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a filing on Wednesday, Paramount\u2019s legal team is seeking essentially a mini-trial, to be held the week of August 17 or August 24. They also said that the company would consent to an extension of the TRO \u201cto cover the period through a decision by the Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s lawyers wrote that the state AGs are seeking an \u201cextraordinary and drastic remedy\u201d \u2014 a preliminary injunction that would pause the merger for at least eight months \u2014 without giving the company \u201can opportunity for a full and fair hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey wrote that the judge \u201chas already recognized Defendants\u2019 proof \u2018creates disputes regarding the facts\u2019 that need to be resolved to fully analyze the competitive effects of the transaction. \u2026 An evidentiary hearing would allow the Court to do so regarding critical factual issues including market definition, real-world competitive dynamics, barriers to expansion, and incentives. Resolving these factual disputes is essential to answering the fundamental question of whether Plaintiffs have carried their burden to prove that the proposed transaction substantially lessens competition. It does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHanging over all of this is the date of Sept. 30, after which Paramount will owe a $7 million per day \u201cticking fee\u201d to Warner Bros. Discovery if the deal is not closed by then. Paramount\u2019s legal team, led by Jeffrey Kessler, noted that in their latest brief, writing that a preliminary injunction would
create \u201ccommercial uncertainty regarding the transaction and cost Paramount well over $1 billion in ticking fees and other additional costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge set a briefing schedule in which the state AGs opening brief due on Thursday, and the company response is due on Monday. The state AG reply is due on July 30. Paramount\u2019s legal team proposed a schedule in which opening briefs would be filed on July 28, the company reply on August 7 and the AG response on August 12.<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesperson for California attorney general Rob Bonta<\/a> said, \u201cWe are reviewing the filing and will respond as appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the hearing on a TRO last week, the attorney for the state AGs, James Weingarten, opposed an earlier Paramount scheduling proposal, which he said was intended to speed up the proceedings. \u201cHaving two experts in a food fight in a month will just waste everyone\u2019s time and resources, if it\u2019s even possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Writers Guild of America filed its own motion for a preliminary injunction as part of is separate lawsuit, and is seeking to align its hearing with the states on August 3. Paramount\u2019s legal team wrote that such a schedule was \u201cnot feasible,\u201d but that it would be possible for a later date in August. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount is proposing that a federal judge hold a three-day evidentiary hearing later in August as she weighs…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":927333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[3227,36555,171,15329,13211,67,132,68,27281],"class_list":["post-953067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-antitrust","tag-electionline","tag-entertainment","tag-paramount","tag-rob-bonta","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}