State AGs File Antitrust Lawsuit to Block $110 Billion Paramount–Warner Bros. Merger
- A bipartisan coalition of 12 state attorneys general, led by California AG Rob Bonta, actually filed suit on July 13 — not merely prepared one — in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to halt Paramount Skydance's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery under Section 7 of the Clayton Act.
- The complaint argues the tie-up would "extinguish competition" in film and television, raising prices for consumers, theaters and cable distributors; Paramount has rejected the allegations as a distortion of antitrust law.
- The filing escalates a parallel state-level track to the federal review and injects a fresh political wild card into one of the largest media deals ever proposed.