BingoTingo Best Place To Gain Knowledge & WP Theme
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) administrative court has upheld parts of Microsoft’s subpoena against Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). This means the latter will be forced to release documents outlining its exclusivity agreements.
In preparation for its legal battle with the FTC on antitrust grounds, Microsoft demanded access to several documents from Sony in an attempt to build a case. Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard has raised concerns from both the FTC and the UK government, who fear the acquisition will lead to exclusivity deals that could reduce competition in the video game market – in violation of antitrust laws.
Microsoft is building an argument to allay these fears. In addition to signing a landmark deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty back to their platforms, Microsoft has filed documents from Sony to use its own exclusivity agreements to bolster its legal position.
In a court order (opens in new tab) of February 23, it was ruled that “SIE’s Motion [to quash the subpoena] is partially granted and partially denied.” While this may seem ambiguous, the order made a very important claim in the case, stating that “the nature and scope of SIE’s content licensing agreements are relevant to… allegations of exclusivity agreements between video game console developers and video game developers and publishers.” ”
Sony’s legal counsel attempted to argue that the sheer burden of reviewing these documents made the process unmanageable, but countered the order by stating that “the alleged burden of having to review an excessive number of contracts is significantly reduced because .. the applicable date range will be limited to January 1, 2019 to present.”
Order on
That said, parts of Sony’s motion to quash were upheld, meaning the order isn’t a complete legal victory for Microsoft. Microsoft made a curious request for documents related to performance reviews from Sony President and CEO Jim Ryan, as well as those who report directly to him. This request led Sony to accuse Microsoft of “obvious harassment” in February, stating that “this is not an employment matter” (via Eurogamer (opens in new tab)).
In addition, Microsoft had originally argued for access to the exclusivity documents from the last 10 years, but Judge Chappell granted Sony’s request to limit the range of documents Microsoft would have access to, to ensure that the range of available data only goes back until 2019 .
However, for Microsoft’s lawyers, this three-year period is likely more than enough to allow them to strengthen their legal defenses ahead of the upcoming battle with the FTC.
However, it is still early days and it remains to be seen exactly how the case will develop in the coming year. However, there is no denying that the outcome of this case will have far-reaching implications for the video game industry as a whole.
