{"id":980827,"date":"2026-08-04T20:57:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/980827\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T20:57:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T20:57:26","slug":"judge-sets-paramount-warner-bros-antitrust-trial-for-march-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/980827\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Sets Paramount-Warner Bros. Antitrust Trial for March 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe judge hearing the antitrust case seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> merger has issued a preliminary scheduling order, with a trial set to start in March 2027 \u2014 considerably later than Paramount was hoping for.<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Araceli Martinez-Olguin on Tuesday issued a ruling that said the trial will run a total of 12 court days, beginning Tuesday, March 2, 2027, and ending March 19. In her order, she said a final pretrial conference will be held Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2027. The judge said the parties must submit a joint case management statement by no later than noon on Aug. 13, 2026, for an initial case management conference on Aug. 19.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a July 31 filing<\/a>, Paramount had asked the judge to schedule its upcoming antitrust trial in November, while the coalition of 12 state attorneys general suing to stop the deal and the Writers Guild of America asked for a date in April 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe scheduling matters for Paramount \u2014 which will begin paying Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a \u201cticking fee\u201d of $7 million per day starting Oct. 1 until the deal is complete. The trial is scheduled to start roughly five months after that, which means Paramount will be on the hook to pay around $1.2 billion to WBD shareholders by the time the trial is scheduled to conclude.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Paramount Skydance<\/a> spokesperson said in an emailed statement, \u201cThe court has set a trial date for early March. We respect the court\u2019s decision and continue to believe a trial on the merits is the best and most direct way for us to prove what we\u2019ve said from the start \u2014 this transaction is lawful, pro-competitive, and raises no antitrust concerns. The lawsuit against us has no basis in fact, economics or antitrust law. We will continue to vigorously defend the transaction and remain committed to closing as soon as possible so its benefits for the creative community and consumers can be realized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCalifornia attorney general Rob Bonta is leading the states\u2019 lawsuit. A rep for the California DOJ said: \u201cWe appreciate the court\u2019s attention to this case and look forward continuing to argue our case and blocking this unlawful merger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn announcing Q2 earnings<\/a> Tuesday, Paramount said, \u201cAs it relates to the planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, we fully expect the transaction to close and remain focused on preparing for a successful combination once it is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its filing last Friday, Paramount argued that a delay \u201cprejudices the creative industry, the individuals who work within it, and the consumers who benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 12-state coalition, including California and New York, filed suit on July 13, alleging that Paramount\u2019s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery will unlawfully reduce competition in the basic cable and theatrical distribution markets. The WGA filed a separate suit the next day, arguing that it will also harm the marketplace for writers. Paramount has argued that the deal will help consumers by providing a more robust competitor to streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an op-ed published Tuesday by the New York Times, Paramount chairman and CEO David Ellison said he believes the lawsuit filed by the state AGs has to do with his potential ownership of CNN<\/a> and not the combined company\u2019s market power.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI believe this fight is not really about market share,\u201d Ellison wrote in the essay. \u201cI believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news. The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner\u2019s CNN.\u201d Ellison reiterated his pledge to keep CNN independent in a merged Paramount-WBD, writing that \u201cwhen it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The judge hearing the antitrust case seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger has issued a preliminary…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":481899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,77684,67,132,68,27281],"class_list":["post-980827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-paramount-skydance","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117039244513105777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980827","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=980827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}