{"id":528776,"date":"2026-04-13T16:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:17:16","slug":"uks-competition-and-markets-authority-invites-public-comment-on-paramount-warner-bros-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528776\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority Invites Public Comment on Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Warner Warner Bros. logo displayed on the water tower at Warner Bros. (Credit: Mario Tama\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

The United Kingdom\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority is seeking the public\u2019s comment on the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the regulator launched an \u201cinvitation to comment,\u201d<\/a> allowing interested parties to submit \u201cany initial views on the impact that the transaction could have on competition in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deadline for comments will be April 27. The CMA is asking that responses be sent to paramount.warnerbrosdiscovery@cma.gov.uk.<\/p>\n

The invitation to comment comes after Paramount CEO David Ellison previously met with U.K. Secretary of Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy<\/a> to discuss issues in the film and TV industry and his bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in January.<\/p>\n

In its notice, the CMA said that it has \u201creceived the necessary information from the parties to commence pre-notification,\u201d but has not yet launched a formal investigation into the transaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective competition helps ensure UK customers can enjoy quality content at a competitive price. The film and TV industries contribute billions to our economy, so it\u2019s important we assess whether deals between studios may harm competition,\u201d a CMA spokesperson told TheWrap. \u201cToday\u2019s invitation to comment is an initial step as we review Paramount\u2019s purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. We expect to launch our Phase 1 investigation in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under a Phase 1 review, the CMA would have 40 working days to decide whether the merger needs a more in-depth review. If it finds concerns with the merger, it will give the merging businesses five days to propose remedies to address its concerns.<\/p>\n

The CMA would then have up to 5 more working days to consider the remedies. If none are offered or it does not accept them, the merger would be referred to a Phase 2 review. If if decides to accept remedies provisionally, it would publicly consult on them and consider any responses, with a deadline of 50 working days to make a decision.<\/p>\n

If the review moves to Phase 2, an independent \u201cinquiry group,\u201d which consists of 3 to 5 people with a range of business, finance, economic and legal experience, would lead the investigation and makes the final decision\u00a0within 24 weeks. In special circumstances, a Phase 2 investigation can be extended by up to eight additional weeks.<\/p>\n

The inquiry group would then either clear the merger, consider remedies such as asset divestitures or a legal commitment from the merging businesses to behave in a certain way, or block the merger.<\/p>\n

The CMA\u2019s move comes after the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period in the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s review expired on Feb. 19. Despite the expiration, the DOJ can still investigate or challenge a Paramount-WBD deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warner Bros. logo displayed on the water tower at Warner Bros. (Credit: Mario Tama\/Getty Images) The United Kingdom\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16384,59,57,58,50,3770,183238,56,54,55,18199,18200],"class_list":{"0":"post-528776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-david-ellison","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-greatbritain","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-paramount","14":"tag-paramount-warner-bros","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom","18":"tag-warner-bros","19":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}