Microsoft's Appeal Of UK Regulator's Block Of Activision Blizzard Acquisition Set For July

Microsoft Corporation MSFT's appeal of the U.K. Competition and Market Authority's decision to block the tech giant's bid to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc ATVI is scheduled to be heard in July, as announced during a case management conference held Tuesday.

As reported by Insider Gaming, Judge Marcus Smith revealed that the hearing on the substance of the application will commence in the fortnight starting July 24.

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"I’m not expecting it to take the whole of those 10 days but I would like the parties to err on the side of longer rather than shorter oral submissions. It seems to me that that is an excess that we can afford," Smith said.

The judge added: "There is a tendency — and it’s very much driven by the Tribunal rather than the parties — to cut submissions to shorter than they perhaps ought to be. I want to do the reverse in this case. I want to have the parties understand that we will want to give them every opportunity to unpack the difficulties of this case in oral submissions and for us to have the time to do that."

In its appeal, Microsoft asserts the CMA has erred on five grounds, including making critical mistakes in its evaluation of the company's standing in cloud gaming services.

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