{"id":995036,"date":"2026-08-12T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995036\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:05:22","slug":"california-ag-rob-bonta-open-to-structural-remedies-in-paramount-wbd-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995036\/","title":{"rendered":"California AG Rob Bonta Open To Structural Remedies In Paramount-WBD Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Attorney General Rob Bonta<\/a> said he\u2019d consider structural remedies to resolve a lawsuit over the Paramount<\/a>-WBD merger but dismissed \u201cbehavioral\u201d remedies that are hard to enforce, like David Ellison<\/a>\u2019s pledge that the combined company will release 30 movies a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s ways where the issue could be resolved with potentially structural remedies, he said at a Politico conference in Sacramento called The California Agenda. \u201cParamount-Warner Brothers are going to have to make business decisions for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if there are settlement talks on currently, he said, \u201cI think they\u2019re eager to enter those talks. And we are very happy with where we are. Literally, on in every development in this case, we have won and they have lost. \u2026 If they, in good faith and sincerely, want to talk about settlement with us, of course we will be open to any proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonta led a group of State Attorneys General in the antitrust suit seeking to block the deal. Set to go to court in March, the case alleges three areas where the $111-billion merger threatens competition \u2013 wide releases films, blockbuster films and cable programming. His Politico appearance follows news earlier Tuesday that Ellison plans to start moving Paramount out of California<\/a> starting Oct. 1 if the AG\u2019s office refuses to start settlement talks by then.<\/p>\n

He defined structural remedies as \u201ckeeping certain corporate entities separate \u2026 in the markets that we have challenged in our complaint. That\u2019s what we\u2019re interested in. We\u2019ve heard a lot about what we call behavioral remedies \u2026 A promise to behave in a certain way in the future. A promise to make a certain amount of movies, for example, in a given year. That\u2019s a behavioral remedy. Those are typically not enforceable in the way that we like. Not particularly good at solving the problem.<\/p>\n

Ellison has pledged that the combined company will release 30 films a yea<\/a>r. \u201cThat is an old stale promise. I\u2019ve heard about that before. It doesn\u2019t really vibe, in my humble opinion, with what the market will dictate and what history has shown, the AG said.<\/p>\n

Bonta also dismissed having Paramount-WBD<\/a> divest CNN as a remedy, because \u201cthe lawsuit is not political.\u201d The Ellison camp has indicated that that it believes the suit is, in fact, political and aimed at keeping CBS News and CNN from coming together under the Ellisons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Mr. Ellison has posited is false. Yesterday, false. Today, false. Tomorrow, false. All day, every day \u2026 That is not what this case is about.\u201d He said the suit \u00a0has \u201clittle, if any, mention of CNN.\u201d In an op-ed he published in Deadline<\/a> Monday, Bonta said \u201cParamount and Warner Bros are spearheading a public relations campaign to spin a narrative that is simply false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I am a person who has chosen a life in public service. I am a proud participant in our American democracy. Of course, I care about the free press and independent press. I believe that we need truth seekers and truth tellers in the press. I believe the press should not be bullied by people in power. I believe that the press should be able to hold the powerful accountable, do investigative journalism, tell stories, and inform the American public so they can make decisions for themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is a separate view that I have. That is not related to our bread and butter, meat and potatoes, black and white antitrust case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an antitrust merger to do what antitrust law does, which is make sure that prices are fair, make sure that jobs are not cut, wages aren\u2019t reduced, make sure that there\u2019s choice, quality, competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Paramount and Warner Brothers wants to propose a settlement that involves real, robust structural remedies that address the concerns in the markets that we\u2019ve identified in our complaint, we will listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonta declined to comment on a recent report in The Wall Street Journal that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had expressed concerns about the lawsuit and urged the AG to reach a settlement. \u201cI like to keep my private conversations with him private,\u201d he said. \u201cI consider him a friend \u2026 I really value my relationship with the Governor. I\u2019m a huge fan. I think he\u2019s incredible. I think he\u2019s an amazing fighter for our democracy, for our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramount\u2019s chief legal officer Makan Delrahim<\/a> will be speaking at the conference later this afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he\u2019d consider structural remedies to resolve a lawsuit over the Paramount-WBD merger…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[32129,171,395353,15329,265995,269047,13211,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-995036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-david-ellison","tag-entertainment","tag-makan-delrahim","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wb","tag-paramount-wbd","tag-rob-bonta","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117079620431434698","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995036","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=995036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}