'Laws were broken': multistate effort to stop Paramount's $111bn merger heads to court

Source: The Guardian

Fri 17 Jul 2026 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 17 Jul 2026 07.01 EDT


A last-ditch effort to block the merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is heading to court as 12 Democratic state attorneys general attempt to stop the $111bn deal they say violates antitrust law and reduces competition in both the film and cable television industries.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday, faces a crucial hearing on Friday to determine if a judge will temporarily pause the deal or allow it to continue toward approval. The merger was already approved by the Department of Justice in June. California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, who is leading the suit, told the Guardian on Thursday he was optimistic about their chances in court.

The lawsuit argues that the merger violates the Clayton Act, a federal antitrust law that prohibits illegal market concentration. “In our complaint, it’s really clean, clear, concise,” he said. “It’s precise with the data points that we’ve shared and courts have traditionally accepted exactly those types of arguments and that kind of data as a basis for finding a merger to be presumptively unlawful.”

Bonta said he was “disappointed” that no Republican attorneys general signed on to the Paramount case, though he was able to form a bipartisan coalition that has been successful at temporarily blocking the merger of the television conglomerates Nexstar and Tegna. “I hope it’s not because of any pressure from the head of the Republican party, Donald Trump, on any those Republican entities, because antitrust cases should be non-partisan or bipartisan,” he added. “They’re just about free and fair markets, and I think we all agree on that.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/17/paramount-warner-bros-merger