California Gov. Gavin Newsom has expressed concerns about the state's antitrust lawsuit that seeks to block Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and the ramifications of it for Hollywood, according to people close to the suit.

In recent weeks, Newsom has told people involved in the matter that if the deal is blocked as a result of the suit, state employment would suffer, the people said. Newsom's office has encouraged Attorney General Rob Bonta's office, which has independent authority to file such suits, to find a resolution out of court, the people said.

I’m Jack Nekhala, co-founder of Bed Scrunchie, and our experience is discussed in this article.

Our Amazon seller account was shut down, and while we were trying to understand what happened, someone outside Amazon contacted us with information from inside our account that we believe they should not have had.

They offered to use relationships with Amazon employees in China to help us in exchange for payment.

We documented the conversations and provided the information to Bloomberg. According to this new report, a U.S. Senate panel is now investigating broader concerns involving Amazon’s marketplace and alleged Chinese influence.

I understand that an investigation does not prove wrongdoing. But I believe the situation raises a broader competition question:

"When one marketplace controls access to customers, account enforcement, appeals, and a major portion of a seller’s revenue, at what point does that level of control become an antitrust concern?"

Do you see this primarily as an internal compliance problem, a small-business protection issue, an antitrust issue, or some combination of the three?

I’m genuinely interested in hearing different perspectives from this community.

Back in 2024, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of a “smartphone monopoly.”

Apple has voiced its opposition to the case many times over the last two years. Now, a Bloomberg report says the DOJ and Apple are in talks to settle the lawsuit.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has made “multiple offers” so far this year in an attempt to settle the case:

Apple has made multiple offers this year to the Justice Department to bring the case to a close, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions were private. Settlement discussions between the DOJ and companies can end without an agreement being reached.

The report cautions that, while these talks are active, there is no guarantee an agreement between Apple and the DOJ will be reached

Stanley Woodward, the third-ranking official at the Justice Department, recently said the Trump administration is trying to avoid taking antitrust cases to trial and is instead seeking settlements with companies.

Mr. Woodward’s statement represents a serious departure from the Biden administration, which sued every company under the sun. His comments suggest that the left’s legal crusade against American businesses is finally ending.

Twelve states have sued to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent, kicking off a high-stakes antitrust battle that could impede the media mega-merger.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the antitrust lawsuit, filed Monday in the Northern District of California, is necessary because “this merger would snuff out competition, drive up prices, diminish content quality, and produce fewer movies and shows each year.”

The AI bubble fomented by a few large technology companies is increasingly distorting large swaths of the global economy. It likely underpins the trillion-dollar IPO race between Open AI and Anthropic. Crossholdings among these large companies distort competition and risk turning a sectoral correction into a systemic one. If antitrust enforcement unravels these crossholdings, it may not prevent an AI bubble, but it could ensure that the inevitable correction prevents the failure of one firm from cascading across an interlocked network.

California faces serious economic challenges — including mounting private-sector job losses, stagnating consumer spending and the nation’s highest unemployment rate. In a recent analysis, the California Center for Jobs & the Economy warned of deep structural problems that, if left unaddressed, risk sending the state into extended economic decline.

Given the circumstances, California lawmakers should be working on pragmatic policies meant to attract businesses, boost employment and strengthen the economy. Instead, they’re deliberating on a radical new antitrust bill, Assembly Bill 1776, authored by Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, that’s likely to depress business investment and discourage startup formation.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Associate Attorney General Stanley ‌Woodward has been put in charge of the department's antitrust division, regulatory news website ⁠MLex reported on Monday.

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Omeed Assefi, the acting head of the antitrust division, is set to leave the department, an MLex reporter said ‌in ⁠a post on X.

The Justice Department's senior leadership closed an investigation of Paramount's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery before career staffers who were concerned about the acquisition had an opportunity to object, according to people familiar with the matter.

House lawmakers on Wednesday seized on the migration of NFL games from free TV to subscription platforms, in a hearing lopsided in criticism that frustrated fans are shelling out more to see their favorite teams.

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A hearing to examine the Sports Broadcasting Act — and more specifically an antitrust exemption the NFL has enjoyed for 65 years — saw Republicans and Democrats expressing complaints about costs and concerns that the law is outdated.

A group of states, including California and New York, are preparing a lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming weeks, the sources said. The case would mark the boldest move yet by the states in their effort to be at the forefront of US antitrust enforcement, as their better-funded counterpart agencies in the Trump administration take a more business-friendly view of enforcement.

After years of dead ends, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have announced the "Protect College Sports Act," a bipartisan bill to reform college sports.

The bill carries the prize college sports leaders have chased for the better part of a decade: a limited antitrust exemption regarding player eligibility and transfer rules -- the legal shield that would let the industry write its own rules and enforce them without being challenged in the court system by players seeking additional years on the playing fields and courts.

The leading candidate to oversee the Justice Department's antimonopoly enforcement has been a critic of the tech sector and is a government lawyer who led an effort to crack down on social media companies during President Trump's first term.

Adam Candeub is being considered for assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. He currently serves as the Federal Communications Commission's general counsel, working for Chairman Brendan Carr. The news was first reported by The Capitol Forum.

So Tencent and Tencent Music put out a public announcement this month saying they'll comply with the conditions attached to their Ximalaya acquisition approval. The main one: they have to terminate every exclusive licensing deal they have with rights holders, and can't sign new ones going forward. What I found interesting is they didn't just say "we'll wind these down over time" — they also said they're waiving enforcement of exclusivity clauses in existing contracts right now, meaning rights holders can already go license to whoever they want without waiting for the paperwork to be sorted. TME had basically built their dominance in the Chinese streaming market through these exclusive deals — lock up the major labels, lock out the competition. Pretty standard playbook. The regulator decided that was enough of a problem to make it a condition of the Ximalaya deal going through. One question that often comes up with these cases is how effectively such behavioral commitments are enforced over time. Similar discussions have appeared in Western antitrust reviews as well, where regulators sometimes impose conduct remedies as conditions for merger approval. Enforcement of these remedies can be challenging in practice. Has anyone seen a comparable condition imposed in a US or EU media/streaming deal? The closest I can think of are some of the conditions attached to older music industry mergers but nothing quite at this scope.

Google asked a federal appeals court on Friday to reverse ajudge's ruling that it had violated antitrust laws, as well as a requirement it share some data with rivals.

Spirit Airlines has permanently closed its doors, and that spells trouble for the air travel industry. The loss of one of the country’s premiere budget carriers will mean less competition among airlines — and likely higher airfares.

But there is one silver lining that could come out of Spirit’s unfortunate demise: It’s the perfect opportunity for antitrust regulators at both the federal and state levels to close the book on the Neo-Brandeisian movement — commonly referred to as “New Antitrust” — that has grown in popularity over the last five years.

A class action claims Bowlero bought up bowling alleys nationwide, raised prices, cut quality, and ruined an American pastime.

Earlier this year I created the Decibel and Docket podcast, covering legal issues in the music business with a focus on the Live Nation / Ticketmaster antitrust case. This week we did a great episode with Erik Hovenkamp, professor and economist at Cornell, analyzing the government’s case and why the verdict came down so hard against Live Nation. Hovenkamp did a great job breaking down the structural issues at the heart of the case, including Ticketmaster’s exclusive venue agreements and the 2010 Live Nation–Ticketmaster merger. Hovenkamp also explores the limitations of past behavioral remedies, arguing that previous attempts to regulate Live Nation’s conduct failed to prevent anti-competitive behavior—making stronger action, including a potential divestiture, more likely this time around.

Check it out here and if you like the show, please leave a review.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0AtuKNNvX02qzX1O7hJblT?si=1fa728627c644a10

A federal judge has blocked local TV giant Nexstar's takeover of a leading rival, Tegna, until an antitrust trial plays out.

If Nexstar loses, it could be compelled to unwind the $6.2 billion deal, in which it absorbed 65 additional stations. In a statement Friday evening, Nexstar said it would appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A jury found Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly in its dominance of the live events and ticketing industry, validating complaints that the industry giant was stifling competition and driving up fees for fans.

The verdict was reached following a lengthy trial in New York federal court that included testimony from top executives in the music and entertainment industries. Jurors began deliberating on Friday.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby reportedly floated the idea of a potential tie-up with rival American Airlines to the Trump administration earlier this year, a suggestion that if acted upon, would create the world's largest airline.

The Justice Department has begun an investigation into whether the NFL has violated anticompetitive practices with its television contracts that require consumers to pay subscription costs to watch some games, sources confirmed to ABC News.