{"id":699315,"date":"2026-07-19T02:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T02:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/699315\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T02:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T02:13:10","slug":"everybodys-suing-paramount-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/699315\/","title":{"rendered":"Everybody’s Suing Paramount This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Various legal actions have been taken to prevent Paramount from completing its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. But the state attorney generals<\/a> involved have been joined by other parties looking to block this merger, some with entirely different grievances.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, 12 states\u2014including California and New York\u2014filed a suit<\/a> alleging the completed merger would harm customers and the entertainment industry. Alongside that, the Writers Guild of America had its own suit against the merger, wherein it pledged to not \u201cstand idly by as Paramount attempts to violate our country\u2019s antitrust laws and deepen the contraction entertainment workers already feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing the concerns of many, the WGA called Paramount\u2019s purchase of WB \u201ca threat to the film and television industry. A merger of the two firms will increase concentration and decrease competition in [television and film writing] markets, resulting in numerous harms, including a reduction in the quantity and variety of theatrical films and series \u2026 and downward pressure on writers\u2019 compensation for film and television writing services. In addition, the merger will increase the likelihood that the remaining firms will be able to tacitly coordinate with each other to further suppress competition in the markets where they operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, there are the Paramount investors<\/a> that filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming CEO David Ellison and his father Larry made illegal deals with the Trump administration so the merger could go through. The investors cite Ellison\u2019s promise to greatly change CNN if Warner Bros. is acquired, along with Paramount\u2019s $16 million settlement<\/a> to President Trump in 2025 and another $20 million<\/a> in free, pro-conservative advertising. In the complaint, the investors say these events \u201cnot only harm the reputations of their owned news outlets, which are hemorrhaging viewers; they are latent liabilities waiting to be triggered by a future administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramount+ subscribers are also involved. That came to light in April<\/a>, with five parties coming out against the merger on the grounds that the subscription service could see price hikes and reduced viewing options. As of this week, that suit\u2019s been folded into the federal antitrust case from the state AGs. As you might guess, Paramount\u2019s still not thrilled about these suits, specifically calling the antitrust case \u201cone of the weakest merger challenges in modern antitrust history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The studio\u2019s lawyers<\/a> pointed to current competitors like Disney and Universal as proof that \u201ccompetition will remain vigorous,\u201d arguing the acquisition will \u201cincrease, not decrease, theatrical motion picture output and will not adversely affect the price terms to theaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, an 80-minute hearing<\/a> took place in Oakland between Paramount and the state AGs, with the latter hoping for a 28-day temporary restraining order barring Paramount and WB from closing the deal. If Paramount\u2019s unable to finish it by September 30, it\u2019ll have to pay investors $7 million per day until it\u2019s presumably completed.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, U.S. District Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn heard both sides and said she\u2019d issue a ruling on the emergency motion by Wednesday, July 22. Paramount previously promised not to close the deal until that date\u2014and depending on Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn\u2019s decision, it may be waiting even longer than that.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Various legal actions have been taken to prevent Paramount from completing its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,3770,56,54,55,18200,52662],"class_list":["post-699315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-paramount","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-warner-bros-discovery","tag-writers-guild-of-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699315","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=699315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}