Britain proposes antitrust overhaul after Microsoft-Activision case

Britain’s antitrust regulator will overhaul its merger assessment regime, including improving interaction with the parties and letting remedies be pitched sooner, after it was criticised over the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) moved into the top tier of global regulators when Britain left the European Union in 2020, giving it a bigger say over mega-mergers such as Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of the “Call of Duty” maker.

It blocked that deal, to the fury of the two U.S. companies, but then tore up its own rule book to reopen and then approve the case after Microsoft came back with changes.